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June 28, 2020

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H+K’S ALKADHI ADDS EUROPE REMIT

VW BUILDS BUTCHER MURAL FOR REBRAND

MAKING FRIENDS WITH FAILURE

METIA CEO takes on wider global responsibilities. P4

Carmaker commissions local artist to unveil new identity. P3

Shehzad Yunus picks himself up to start again. P24

UAE RADIO GUIDE 2020 “Instead of a huge decline in listening levels, data showed a shift in devices being used to consume radio.”

The voice of the Middle East

Living with ‘the wolf in the woods’

Regional podcasters may be turning up the volume, but are they being heard? And could the pandemic be a turning point?

MullenLowe’s Matt Butterworth opens up about depression and looks at how an industry prone to the disease can learn to cope.

SARAH MESSER, director at Nielsen, on the effects of Covid.

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P20

Spend drop ‘not as bad as 2009’ The latest predictions from Warc say that while 2020 will see a decline in ad spend of 8.1 per cent, the last recession was worse.

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June 28, 2020

VMLY&R Dubai is named Regional Agency of the Decade in Cannes Lions’ 10-year creativity report By Austyn Allison VMLY&R Dubai has been named the Middle East and Africa’s regional best agency of the past 10 years in Cannes Lions’ first Lions Creativity Report of the Decade. The award goes to the agency that has performed best across the festival’s annual agency rankings over the last 10 years. VMLY&R (previously Y&R until it merged with WPP sister agency VML in 2018) has produced Cannes Lions-winning work over the past 10 years for clients including the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with whom it created One Book for Peace and One Poster for Peace, which won Gold in 2017 and 2018. This work helped to show Christians and Muslims that there is more they have in common than that which divides them. Speaking about the award Kalpesh Patankar, CCO of VMLY&R MENA, said: “Our big learning of the decade is that no matter where you work, you have to be willing to break the rules. I’m very grateful to all of the people who have brought us this far and contributed passionately to our story. In the next decade I hope we can write a story that is even bigger and bolder.” Georges Barsoum, CEO of VMLY&R MENA, said: “This couldn’t have

Winning team: VMLY&R has been the region’s top performer in Cannes Lions’ agency rankings

happened without wonderful clients who believed in our ‘connected brands’ philosophy, whereby great storytelling is empowered by technology to create brands that not only live in people’s culture but rather bend it to create impact. Thank you Cannes Lions for being such an inspiring platform that pushes the bar higher and higher.”

Second placed MEA agency was TBWA Hunt Lascaris, Johannesburg, South Africa; in third was Ogilvy, Johannesburg, South Africa. WPP was named the best holding company in the rankings. The business, which has its headquarters in the UK and owns the Grey, Ogilvy, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson networks, was named Holding

Company of the Year at seven straight Cannes Lions from 2011 to 2017, although it was surpassed at the last two events by US rival Omnicom, which finished second over the decade, following by third-placed Interpublic. During the decade, BBDO picked up 16 Grands Prix, three Titanium, 150 gold, 281 silver and 471 bronze Lions.

Momentum Egypt wins HSA brief

VOLKSWAGEN MIDDLE EAST KINETIC Volkswagen Middle East partnered with long-term UAE-based artist Maddy Butcher to create an artistic take on the new Volkswagen brand and introduce it to the region. Butcher produced an energetic mural entitled Kinetic, which combines the vibrant new brand palette and tone with some of the most recognisable features of VW’s vehicles. She fused these features with patterns and shapes inspired by traditional characteristics of local architecture. The main piece was painted over three days, then sections were cut away and made into 50 unique standalone artworks. Videography was by Jack Leonardo, Butcher’s co-founder at Crisp Productions.

Momentum Egypt has announced its appointment by Hayel Saeed Anam (HSA) Yemen, a multi-sector family-owned conglomerate in Yemen, as the advertising agency for its FMCG business. HSA has interests in manufacturing, retail and trade. The group’s most prominent sectors include edible oils and dairy products; biscuits and confectionery; flour milling and sugar refining; carton printing and packaging; and cement production. HSA CMO Mohamed Torki said: “We are looking to transform the way our brands converse with our consumers. Momentum Egypt’s work in this area in recent years has been impressive and we trust that their expertise and talent, combined with the exceptional capabilities of the FP7/McCann team, will help further the 85-year legacy of HSA Group’s FMCG business.”

June 28, 2020

Global H+K restructure sees Europe and Nordics report in to Middle East As part of a global restructure of WPP-owned PR agency Hill + Knowlton Strategies, Europe and The Nordics now answer in to Dubai-based Bashar AlKadhi, previously CEO of METIA (Middle East, Turkey, India and Africa). AlKadhi retains leadership of those countries in his new role as CEO of Hill+Knowlton EMEAx. Other CEOs report in to him. The restructure took place at the beginning of June, when H+K moved from a “five-plus-five” reporting structure to a “three-plus-three” model. It had previously operated five regional clusters (Latin America, Europe, METIA, China and the Nordics) and five strategic countries operating independently (the US, Germany, the UK, China and Canada). Now it has six reporting units. Its clusters are The Americas, Greater China and EMEAx. Its key countries have been whittled down to the UK, China and Germany. The US is H+K’s largest standalone market, although the majority of the network’s business comes from other countries. AlKadhi says that the US is still a key market, although it’s not one of the three named ones, adding: “The global leadership sits there anyway, so it has its own focus.”

AlKadhi says the importance of the Dubai hub is “a compliment” to the Middle East teams. He says there are two practical reasons the Middle East was chosen as the hub for MENAx: “geographically, because of where the Dubai hub is; and the size of the operation in the region”. He adds: “We used to work closely together anyway – this is a reporting thing – but I’d be lying to say that people here are not happy.” METIA had about 370 staff before the reorganisation, which AlKadhi says gives it “the critical mass to support this region, but also to support Europe”. And H+K’s regional operations have weathered the coronavirus crisis better than some agencies so far. The METIA cluster has more employees now than it did at the start of the year, and AlKadhi says he expects to see growth in the METIA business between 2019 and 2020. Its first quarter was strong, before Covid-19 hit the economy in March, and a slow summer was already expected. H+K METIA has also diversified its client rosta under AlKadhi, who became CEO in 2016 after six years as COO of WPP sister agency Asda’a Burson Marsteller. “Three or four years

Bashar AlKadhi: CEO of Hill + Knowlton Strategies’ new EMEAx cluster

ago, we decided we go to have a very broad and deep business, meaning no single client is more than 10 per cent of our revenue.” The business is spread out amongst regional markets too. “We said let’s fix the roof while the sun is shining,” says AlKadhi. “We always had in mind that something may happen, though none of us predicted this. But

we live in a tough neighbourhood.” Global chairman and CEO AnnaMaria DeSalva recently called AlKadhi “a proven leader who has worked across diverse cultures and operating environments, and has established a growth culture in METIA that we want to replicate across the entire agency”.

LUSH & DELIVEROO 30-SECOND SOAP

HOME CENTRE MIDDLE EAST A DAD’S JOB

As part of their guidelines to effectively combat coronavirus infections, the World Health Organisation recommends that people wash their hands with soap and water for 20-30 seconds. Lush, in collaboration with Deliveroo, created a simple solution: 30-Second Soap, a self-timing soap designed to completely dissolve after 30 seconds of vigorous use. Working closely with Deliveroo, the food delivery company with the UAE’s largest fleet of delivery drivers, Lush will distribute 30-Second Soap for free across Dubai, while also making it available through its website.

As the world celebrated Father’s Day on June 21 with deserving tributes to dads, Home Centre, a home retailer in the Middle East, used Father’s Day as a stage to support those single mums who double up as dads. Through a moving film, titled A Dad’s Job, launched on social media, Home Centre shared a message to those who are living without a dad, that this Father’s Day they can also celebrate their mums who do a dad’s job every day. The film shows children saying the one message they’d love to share on Father’s Day.

Agency And Us CCO and founder Fadi Yaish Business lead Mhmoud Jaber CD Sandy McIntosh Senior CD Camila Venegas Gomez Animation director James Elgie Head of content development and production Serena Chemaly Content production Black Box Photo production Studio Melt

Agency FP7 McCann Regional ECDs Oliver Robinson, Fouad Abdel Malak Regional head of strategy Tahaab Rais Creative director, copywriters Aunindo Anoop Sen, Tahaab Rais Art director Bana Salah Copywriter Kelly Tomes Arabic copywriter Maher Dawah Production House Dejavu Executive producer Manasvi Gosalia Director Tahaab Rais DOP Aeyaz

June 28, 2020

Wunderman Thompson regional chief creative officer Ramsey Naja steps down One of the Middle East’s best known creatives, Ramsey Naja, has stepped down as regional chief creative officer of Wunderman Thompson after 25 years with the company, 17 of those as CCO. Naja had been leading creative for the Middle East and Africa at J. Walter Thompson since 2003, from his home base of Beirut. JWT merged with WPP sister agency Wunderman last year. Under his creative leadership, JWT MEA rose to become one of the region’s most awarded networks and a formidable player on the global advertising scene, picking up awards at Dubai Lynx, Cannes Lions, One Show and New York Festivals among many others. In 2016 the MENA network won Network of the Year at Dubai Lynx. Asked about his tenure at JWT, Naja said: “I loved every minute of it. Every twist of that rollercoaster. It was an exhilarating, intoxicating ride: one day you’re walking with giants, and the next you find yourself in front of an idea that makes you feel tiny. Every day was an education. No two days were the same. But perhaps the greatest part of it were the brilliant people I had the privilege of working with – juniors, seniors, interns, clients, suppliers, competitors even – the

Nadim Samara leaves OMG

“An exhilarating, intoxicating ride”: Naja and his team celebrating at Dubai Lynx in 2016

people without whom I wouldn’t be who I am today, and to whom I will be forever grateful.” He added: “So now, as I look forward to a new start, new projects, a new journey, I can only hope it will be as exciting and enlightening as the previous one.”

Naja has also been a regular columnist for Campaign, and promises to continue to contribute his blend of wry observation, insight and humour (flavoured with a dash of healthy cynicism) in future. Wunderman Thompson did not respond to requests for comment.

Nadim Samara, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA, is to leave his role, following a decision taken by mutual agreement, said OMG in a statement. OMG is the parent group for OMD, PHD and Hearts & Science media agencies. Samara was CEO of OMD’s UAE business from 2016 to 2018, when he was promoted to CEO of OMD MENA. A year ago, in June 2019, he was made CEO of OMG MENA. Elie Khouri, the group’s executive chairman, will add the function of CEO to his role, a title he held until Samara’s promotion last year. “Nadim’s career at OMG, spanning 17 years, has been very impressive and his contribution to our group’s development cannot be overstated,” Khouri said. “As well as a consummate professional, we bid farewell to a dear friend with whom we’ve shared countless experiences, challenges and successes. We wish him nothing but the best for his next career move.”

NESCAFE STAY CLOSE FROM FAR

MBRGI WORLD’S TALLEST DONATION BOX

For a brand that celebrates human connections, it was frustrating for Nescafe to see how everyone everywhere was calling for social distancing. It took this as an opportunity to celebrate the fact that we are not socially distant at all; on the contrary, we are more socially connected than ever, yet only physically distant. So Nescafe transformed the @Nescafearabia Instagram grid into a building made up of different balconies where each person shares their story of connections. Then it asked people to submit their stories. Each story is celebrated by its own illustration and added to the ever-growing building.

In May, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), in collaboration with Burj Khalifa, launched the World’s Tallest Donation Box. The first-of-its-kind creative initiative put the iconic skyscraper’s 1.2 million lights up for sale to raise funds and provide meals for coronavirus-hit communities during the Holy Month of Ramadan. The initiative, produced in collaboration with MullenLowe MENA, enabled charitable organisations, companies and the general public to purchase lights, for as little as AED 10 each, to provide vital food aid for low-income individuals and families across the UAE. For every light purchased for AED 10 on the initiative’s website, one meal was provided, gradually illuminating Burj Khalifa’s 1.2 million lights, one at a time, as a message of hope and solidarity to the world.

Agencies Publicis ME, Zenith ECD Rana Najjar Creative director Jaison Samuel Ben Senior art director Marco de Albuquerque Illustrator and multimedia designer Ritu Poojari English copywriter Jessica VanDerBerg

June 28, 2020

odcasts have proved to be a reliable medium to reach different audiences, and their listenership continues to grow. The transition to mobile technologies and people’s need to multitask make the self-contained shows the perfect companion while commuting, exercising or cooking. In the MENA region more people are listening, and marketers and investors alike are starting to take notice. Worldwide there are more than a million shows, according to estimates from the website Podcast Insights. More than 1,000 are produced in the Middle East and that number is growing. In 2018 podcast ad revenue was worth $480m in the US, according to Statista, which expected this to rise to more than $1bn by next year. Streaming platform Spotify is banking on the trend and recently spent $600m to acquire the podcast networks Gimlet Media, Parcast, Anchor, Ringer and The Joe Rogan Experience. The US trend is echoed in the Middle East, as podcasts numbers are rising and companies are turning to the medium to connect with their audiences. As podcasts have been growing for the past few years, so it seems that even during the Covid-19 pandemic the trend continues its thriving pattern. Hebah Fisher, the co-founder and CEO of the Kerning Cultures podcast, sees “podcasts as a digital revival of our long-time oral tradition in the Arab world”. That tradition is one of the reasons UAE radio reaches a wider audience than television, and as digital progress moves fast in the country, podcasts have lots of potential. A study from Northwestern University indicated that the two countries from the MENA region with the highest percentage of listeners tuning in to a podcast were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2018. A report on podcasts released last year by Markettiers MENA, in collaboration with 4DC, found that already 16 per cent of people in the UAE and 15 per cent in Saudi Arabia tune in to a podcast regularly. Furthermore, 92 per cent of those listeners trust this form of media more than traditional forms. And the retention rate is high. An estimated 90 per cent of listeners who begin a podcast will listen until the end. While podcasts are growing in popularity in the Middle East, there is a shortage of Arabic-language content and local stories. The potential to fill this void and diversify the content for this audience is still largely unexploited, but there have been major advances. For instance, Omar Tom, co-host of The Dukkan Show, says his was one of the only podcasts in the region back in 2015. There has been exponential growth since then and there were more than 500 podcasts in the GCC by 2019. Fisher also confirms this growth but acknowledges the long path to travel when compared with markets like the US where there are 150 million active

‘‘REGULAR PODCAST LISTENERS SPEND ABOUT 26 PER CENT MORE EACH MONTH THAN NON-REGULAR LISTENERS.”

E H T P U N R TU Podcasts are starting to take off in the Middle East, with outside investors and marketers showing increased interest. Could Covid-19 be a turning point for the medium? By Sofia Serrano listeners and more than 350 thousand podcasts. Still, the fact that MENA tops global usage in platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, and also has one of the highest smartphone penetrations worldwide, gives a good picture of how the region has the potential to become one of the most active podcast markets within the next few years. Some podcasts have made interesting moves for the growth of the community, such as the start-up Kerning Cultures, which raised $460,000 from San Francisco-based venture capital firm 500 Start-Ups in 2019 to serve its Arabic audiences. The Saudi Arabian network MSTDFR has been catering to an Arabic market for years, and now produces about 14 shows. Finyal Media launched an audio version of the classic tale of A Thousand and One Nights. Sowt is producing shows with content about sexuality, religion, politics and music. The Dukkan Show has become known for offering a space for exploration of Arab culture. Thmanyah (Arabic for ‘Eight’) has a

popular show called Fnjan (‘Coffee Cup’). Other media companies including Al Jazeera and The National are adding podcasts to their content. Even though numbers are growing, podcasts still have untapped potential in the Middle East. In the UAE, podcasters have used the freedom of the format to create original content that resonates with different audiences. Some of these podcasts include Hamburger Generation (cultural topics

June 28, 2020

from Westernised Arab youth); DXBabies (women’s issues and life in Dubai from the perspective of co-hosts Maram El Hendy and Lana Makhzoumi); Digital Hoos (technology mixed with media and marketing); The Hangout with Rushdi (comedian Rushdi Rafeek interviews all kinds of personalities from the UAE); and Hello Mam Sir Show (a Tagalog show about the Filipino expat community in the UAE). Podcast audiences have some unique traits. Studies in the UK, US and UAE have shown that the podcast audience usually possesses more disposable income. The report by Markettiers confirms this trend in the UAE, where regular podcast listeners spend about 26 per cent more each month than non-regular listeners. This includes outlays on FMCG, lifestyle and in-home, insurance and subscriptions. It is an audience that can be appealing for brands. However, Cheryl King, managing director at Markettiers MENA, recognises the need to focus on measuring podcast engagement as brands want to know their ROI. At the moment, podcasts are fragmented across different platforms and applications. One of the reasons is the smartphone divide of iOS vs Android. This fragmentation can cause trouble for publishers wanting to understand the popularity of a particular podcast. At the moment, Google is entering the podcast environment and recently implemented an inbrowser podcast player that is device-neutral. This move could provide stronger listener data and include podcasts in its search inventory, providing better algorithms and targeting. The consolidation of this platform can give brands solid ground to plan for

informed budgets and sponsorship buys. The Covid-19 pandemic has had different effects on different podcasts in the region. Ramsey Tesdell, executive director of Sowt, says that the crisis has sped up podcast growth as more people are engaging with on-demand content. Similarly, Kerning Cultures has experienced a surge in its listenership with its audience more than doubling since Covid-19 began affecting the region. This boost can be explained by people’s changing habits; before, people were listening mostly while commuting, but now the time slots have changed to listening at home while undertaking activities such as cooking, doing puzzles or exercising. For the people at the Dukkan Show, the number of non-subscribers that listen to the show increased from 20 per cent to 35 per cent of total listeners. The Dukkan Show’s Reem Hameed says this growth can be related to people’s search for deep, authentic and real stories in the redefined “community” postpandemic, where compulsory physical isolation has led to a desire for a virtual connection. Hameed adds that recording from home has, in a way, made the conversations more honest and authentic as interviewees feel more comfortable at home. King’s explanation for the listenership growth relates to people keeping informed about the pandemic with podcasts such as CNN’s Coronavirus, or, at the other end of the spectrum, as a form of escapism by listening to mental health or mindfulness podcasts. In terms of what’s to come for podcasts, from the technological side the dissemination of smart speakers may shape the landscape for the near future, according to Markettiers’ predictions. Having most smart speakers placed in communal areas (more than three quarters are in living rooms and kitchens in the US) can define new dynamics for podcasts. In these circumstances, the format may expand from one to multiple users. These formats may lead to podcast innovation towards communal experiences such as meditations or cooking shows. Another opportunity is the learning-based podcast; in China and South Korea, podcasts are mostly used for this purpose. In the current situation, with people studying at home, this is a trend that could boom in the region. On the more creative side, the Dukkan Show creators predict that narrative will continue evolving as there is lots of freedom for creating a podcast. It is as simple as having a mic, which encourages creativity that can result in sonic experiences with layered stories. They also see binaural recording (which uses two microphones) becoming more accessible shortly, to create more immersive experiences. The team at Kerning Cultures are also opting for more experimentation with narrative and are currently working on their first fiction show. Despite all the exciting innovations and movement around podcasts, there is still much room for this platform to grow in the region. Sowt’s Tesdell says mainstream publishers are making podcasts, but there is still the need for a podcast to go truly mainstream so that all other shows can benefit from the game-changer moment. The Dukkan Show’s Hameed believes an acquisition, echoing that of Gimlet, would be a major turning point in the region. Content would have to be at a level to make its purchase appealing, and Hameed says the next challenge for the Dukkan Show is not to compromise its narrative, while still being appealing for such an acquisition. Hameed’s colleague Tom says more attention needs to be focused on podcast culture. This can happen as governments and businesses move into the podcast space and independent shows continue to flourish.

As the “new normal” takes the stage and makes its mark on people’s daily routines, there can be a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. In this scenario, having the opportunity to immerse yourself in a podcast story and actively use your imagination – audio in many ways can be extremely visual – can release stress and brighten gloomy moods. And, considering podcasts’ potential, starting a podcast can even be an exciting new project to start working on.

Sofia Serrano is a freelance journalist based in Dubai. sofiserrano26@gmail.com

SO WHAT? How to tell compelling stories In his own podcast, Alex Blumberg from the Gimlet network gives some recommendations on the fundamental steps to making a high-quality podcast. Start with making a good pitch, which is accomplished by answering the “so what?” question, having a character to move the narrative, and giving details on the topic. To structure a story, have: a) a sequence of actions; b) a point to which all the actions lead to; c) details to make the story vivid; d) a moment of feeling or reflection. Make sure to have all kinds of emotions. The basic rules when conducting an interview are having open-ended questions to get more than just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer and, most importantly, to be a human being (be empathic and don’t act like a robot). To structure your story, divide the audio format into three categories, each one striving a different purpose. The first part is meant to sell your show. The two actions for achieving this consist of raising a question and making a promise that the story is going to be amazing. Then, the second part is meant to deliver on the sale. To do this, keep your audience engaged by adding something new (voice, music, sound effects) every 45 to 90 seconds. In the third part, the ideal is to finish gracefully. Achieve this by using representations of the feeling or idea exposed instead of just describing it.

June 28, 2020

DIGITAL AUDIO: A CHANNEL WORTH TUNING IN TO Publicis Media’s Stacy Fisher and Dylan Temple Heald say that while radio is still a strong medium, media planners need to think outside traditional silos

he distinction between offline and online persists to be challenged just as people continue to seamlessly transition from one ecosystem to the next. We first saw the blurring of ecosystems with TV and digital video advertising, as new inventory sources from Connected TV and OTT platforms became available, and with the proliferation of devices that can deliver content on demand. Now, we are seeing the same trend with terrestrial radio extending to digital audio as listenership continues to increase year-over-year. Understanding cross-screen or cross-device environments for both TV/video and radio/audio is critical for advertisers learning to adapt planning methods for the channels as a whole, as opposed to treating consumer journeys in silos. It needs to be made clear that we’re not here to tell you radio is a dying advertising medium. It’s not; not even close. In fact, radio accounts for some of the largest audience reach percentages across multiple markets and is very effective at increasing brand awareness and recall. Studies from Nielsen, Millward Brown and RAJAR across US and UK markets have consistently measured positive results for advertisers. With 30 per cent of time spent on mobile being audio listening (InMobi, 2019), we cannot turn a deaf ear (pun definitely intended) to the rise of digital audio in the past couple of years and the gap it fills in screenless media. Although many immediately associate audio with music streaming via mobile devices, its reach extends across much more, including podcasts and audiobooks, and its distribution includes other technologies such as connected cars, voice browsing and smart speakers. Where radio is a oneto-many approach, digital audio is better able to deliver a specific brand message to a more targeted audience based on their behaviours and listening preferences.

We know digital audio will continue to evolve and mature in 2020 and by H1 2021 to achieve greater scale with new inventory coming online, more automation to deliver dynamically and programmatically, and the ability to offer more robust audience targeting paired with effective measurement solutions. Ad-supported content will continue to play an important role in the continued growth of digital audio. Statista reports from 2019 show

minimum spend required. This lowers the financial risk and allows brands to test and learn. Likewise, when buying programmatically, one has the control over optimisations with greater transparency as well as consolidation of your digital media buys. Highly targetable audience data based on behaviour, mood and emotion, genre of music, psychographics and demographics. Digital audio offers 100 per cent share of voice, making it a highly

Stacy Fisher is head of digital transformation and innovation, media at Publicis Media

Dylan Temple Heald is director, Precision at Publicis Media

Spotify has 271 million active users globally, with more than half of these users logging on to their free, adsupported service. On top of Spotify, there are a number of other digital audio service providers available, such as Deezer, Soundcloud and Anghami, to name just a few. Therefore, we believe it is time for brands to adopt this channel to help further enhance their overall marketing strategy. Below are a few of the reasons to include digital audio when planning your next display and video campaign. • Programmatic audio inventory offers a low point of entry with no

effective and engaging way of communicating with your intended audience. • The majority of digital audio inventory is offered by premium publishers and streaming services and shows a very low level of ad fraud instances, especially as content is served to logged-in users. • Digital audio bundled with display and video has been proven to increase brand awareness and incremental reach. Digital audio opens up huge opportunities for brands to get creative with the way they engage with their

“UNDERSTANDING CROSS-SCREEN OR CROSS-DEVICE ENVIRONMENTS FOR TV/VIDEO AND RADIO/ AUDIO IS CRITICAL FOR ADVERTISERS.” audiences, by way of storytelling – and we don’t mean by just reading audiobooks. The way people are consuming audio differs depending on the time of day, the activity they are currently engaged in and the device they are using. So too should the type of message your brand is communicating adapt, whether it be a shorter-form message with pure audio or combined video and audio format. Measurement of digital audio has in the past been a challenge for the industry, but over the past couple of years we have seen extensive improvements that now allow for similar reports and attributionlevel measurement as digital video solutions. With a growing number of audiences accessing premium audio streaming and audio book platforms (especially during current times, with limited movement because of anticoronavirus measures) that offer adsupported free services globally, and growing adoption of those services in the MENA region, with access to that inventory programmatically, it’s never been a better time to add digital audio to your marketing strategy.

June 28, 2020

STREAMING INTO THE FUTURE Spotify’s Rakesh Patel asks what the future looks like for audio innovation and what marketers can do right now By RAKESH PATEL, head of sales UK and pan-EMEA at Spotify

udio is the most innovative place an advertiser can be right now. Amid a transformative landscape, audio proves itself to be a formidable force in the space through its growing consumption, innovation and impact. This is because audio provides creative opportunities for marketers that other mediums cannot. It can be taken anywhere with very little equipment and requirements, while audio ads can be created easily and efficiently outside of a studio, while still offering high-quality production and distribution. Audio is the medium for 2020 and beyond. This has been accelerated by recent events, and I believe the momentum is just getting started. Today, audio is present in our lives in more ways than we think. Smart speakers, cars and Bluetoothpowered wearables all support that growth. Further, now more than ever, the content itself is seeing an extraordinary increase in development with more music and podcasts (On Purpose with Jay Shetty is my top pick of the moment) being released by the minute. There truly is something for everyone. New technology and approaches also mean that the opportunity to discover new audio content and personalise listening is engaging audiences and keeping them hooked through the likes of Discover Weekly on Spotify, Daily Mixes, Release Radar, Your Daily Podcasts and much, much more.

‘‘AUDIO CAN BE TAKEN ANYWHERE WITH VERY LITTLE EQUIPMENT, WHILE ADS CAN BE CREATED OUTSIDE A STUDIO.”

With this in mind it is unquestionable that audio will continue to be a dominant force in the marketing space. And as its reach expands, we have more opportunity for relevant and timely advertising to benefit the customer and the advertiser. To that point and looking to the future, we expect to see programmatic audio advertising continue its rise. This approach allows advertisers to set up their own target markets on the platform and get the reach they are looking for, while the listener gets served ads that are more relevant and ideally more impactful. Investments in self-serve platforms, like our own Ad Studio, will play an important role here, too. We can also find further clues about the future of the audio industry by looking back at the early days of video. There it was the evolution of the screen, followed by smart screens across all devices. This allowed new video experiences like Netflix and YouTube to emerge, introducing on-demand and personalised viewing experience. The result was the rise of digital video consumption – now 27 per cent of all watch time – but it took time for video monetisation to catch up. Ads went from forced to skippable and personable; broad delivery to narrow targeting; unmeasurable to measurable.

What quickly followed was an industry-wide investment in tools and resources that helped brands easily (and quickly) to create beautiful and effective video assets, made just for that platform. And now, today, digital video generates 34 per cent of all video ad revenue. The same thing is happening in audio: consumption is rising and ad revenue is ticking up – and we are driving this innovation in streaming and digital audio. Next is monetisation. We’re actively investing in a suite of audio creative tools, services and resources that will make it easier than ever to build for our platform – and native audio experiences that can only be found on Spotify. And for me, that’s the future.

June 28, 2020

DISRUPTED BUT STILL RELEVANT Covid-19 has changed consumers in many ways. So what does that mean for radio? Fusion 5’s Anthony Mchayleh examines the pandemic’s effects on a resilient medium

hen it comes to media, radio is potentially one of the oldest living – or should I say ‘surviving’? – mediums. What is more interesting is that it always manages to refresh its glory days. Whether the concept of radio reminds you of your daily commute or further back to when it was the only source of entertainment for the entire family that gathered around a giant heavy box to tune in at home, you have to give it to this versatile medium that was around before TV even made it into the picture (pun intended). Radio has been a significant part of the media landscape for decades and has survived numerous disruptions, including all four industrial revolutions and the rise of the podcast. And yet it continues to enjoy high listenership, all the while remaining as resilient as ever. Surely radio has evolved over time, and tremendously at that. In some cases it has used the very same mediums that disrupted it in the first place to find its way back to its audiences. But where does this tough medium stand post the most disruptive era of them all, one that brought forth a new set of consumer behaviours, interests and media consumption habits? Where does it stand after Covid-19? Well, for starters there are some noticeable changes in consumption.

‘‘RADIO STATIONS HAVE TO GET TO KNOW THEIR AUDIENCES ALL OVER AGAIN TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS AND PREFERENCES.” According to a recent study conducted by Nielsen, there is a 43 per cent drop in radio listeners tuning in from their cars. But we can clearly notice a trend here through a 35 per cent increase in listenership from radio devices from home, 33 per cent from mobile/tablet devices and 35 per cent from computers/laptops. It doesn’t stop there. Other studies have found that the greatest gains in consumption are a 33 per cent increase amongst younger adults, specifically those aged 18 to 24, with

the majority of them accessing their preferred radio channels through their smart phones. This unusual progression of millennials embracing radio could bring forward a surprising turn of events for those media that have become more meaningful than others during the pandemic. This also affirms that access to information has indeed become the most critical need for most respondents post-Covid-19, followed by media that provides distraction, helps listeners unwind and offers escapism and/or comfort. If such findings tell us anything, it is that people are actively looking for entertainment through a trusted source. That makes the radio offering quite enticing, don’t you think? Especially when a station is able to curate timely and accurate news segments coupled with live interactive entertainment shows that not only run competitions with high-value prizes but also reinforce the sense of community through their own initiatives. Despite the significant listenership that radio has managed to maintain during the Covid-19 outbreak, it must be said that it has also experienced some of the highest plunges in ad revenue amongst traditional media. In a recent Ipsos study, radio had kickstarted 2020 with a very promising increase in budget compared with 2019. However, these figures took a dive from week 12 when the lockdown period began. We believe the sudden disappearance of commutes caused marketers to shift towards online media to reach their targets, in turn resulting in a fallout for the radio sector, which was already fighting to make its case for advertisers. One would consider such a transition to be somewhat temporary, but hold that thought for a second. Even though the curfew has been lifted in most major cities in the region, consumers are still applying some of the newly formed habits they developed during quarantine. Because, let’s face it, the world preCovid-19 is certainly not the same as post-Covid-19. The question here is: are consumers going to go back to their old media consumption habits or stick with their

newly formulated ones? That is what brands, marketers and media are trying to figure out. Radio is not going anywhere. If anything, the pandemic was an eye-opener that revealed new opportunities to reach a wider audience whilst also teaching us to stop limiting its reach to cars and rush hours. We did say it was a resilient medium. Having said this, radio stations have a huge task at hand. They need to get to know their audiences all over again to better understand their needs and preferences. This juggling act goes hand-in-hand with identifying smart online and offline solutions and integrating them with social media to maximise reach. It is imperative that stations also capitalise on the expanded outreach that smart phones and computers have afforded them. Think about it; radio has become boundless. This is huge. Perhaps our biggest Covid-19 takeaways in the wake of ‘every dirham matters’ are: adaptation is futile; agility is key; and creativity is fundamental to success in any and all businesses. That includes radio and anyone trying to harness its power.

By Anthony Mchayleh, head of investments, Fusion 5

June 28, 2020

THE SAUDI ARABIA PODCAST REPORT Elias Jabbe explores Saudi Arabia’s podcasting ecosystem in Jeddah and Riyadh

n October 4, 2019 at the Middle East Podcast Forum at Art Jameel’s Jameel Arts Centre alongside Dubai’s Al Jaddaf Waterfront, I witnessed podcasting’s growing importance in MENA as I sat surrounded by nearly 150 audio enthusiasts, including many of my fellow podcast producers. As I walked through the 10,000-square-metre centre, I kept hearing podcasters speak an Arabic dialect I was familiar with: the Hijazi dialect spoken in the major Western Saudi Arabian cities of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina. I noted to myself, after enjoying listening to podcasts for over a decade and helping my clients launch their own shows, that I needed to learn more about Saudi Arabia’s podcasting community. For good reason: a new Markettiers report reveals 5.1 million people listen to podcasts regularly in the kingdom. A Saudi Airlines flight to Riyadh served as a reminder of audio’s popularity in the kingdom. The inflight entertainment system offered audiobooks via the start-up Dhad and the Fnjan podcast, created by Riyadh-based production company Thmanyah. In Riyadh, I met Thmanyah founder Abdulrahman Abumalih and his colleagues Mazen Al Otaibi and Rawan Al Furaih, who produce podcasts and documentaries together. The trio notably travelled to New York to film a documentary about an American civil rights icon: Malcolm X: The Untold Story From an Arab Perspective. “At Thmanyah, we endeavour to go above and beyond creating, sharing, and distributing meaningful content to enrich content in the Arab world,” said Abumalih. “We have been architecting a new medium to communicate our thoughts and aspirations to the entire world; we call it left-to-right, or LTR, an independent journal published in English.” His team has paused LTR, however, due to Covid-19, and was set to launch a Saudi Customs podcast focused on economics. Next, I met Abdulrahman Al Omran, founder of Tiar podcast, PodcastArabic. com and W-Aqol.com, a website that curates popular Saudi phrases. Al Omran contributes to the podcasting community by hosting a Telegram group, producing Arabic social media content for the Kerning Cultures podcast network and speaking at events such as the Forum. “Embracing digital transformation is happening at unprecedented levels across the kingdom; one example is the rise of podcasting,” says Al Omran. “I started PodcastArabic.com, a community for podcasters, in 2017. We have created courses and helped up-and-coming podcasters in areas like marketing, technical help, crafting their content and storytelling.” For generations, Saudi Arabia’s second city Jeddah has been a gateway for international visitors traveling to Mecca for pilgrimage. The city’s cosmopolitan nature is reflected in podcasts produced in Arabic and English by MSTDFR Publishing Company, such as MSTDFR, Azzbda and Eish BTSWI. Rami Taibah and Ammar Al Sabban are co-founders of MSTDFR and the Middle East Podcast Forum, and Al Sabban offered his analysis of podcasting’s rise across Saudi Arabia. “For the past five years, a lot of podcasts have started in Saudi Arabia and we know a lot of them that started in Jeddah,” he says. “However, today we see a lot of shows popping up from around the kingdom.” He adds that a podcast network must have distinct shows in order to build a following. A case in point: Azzbda, hosted by MSTDFR COO Khayra Bundakji, has its own unique style, even though Al Sabban makes guest appearances. Taibah explains that the Forum’s mission of promoting new podcasters will continue in Saudi Arabia. “We are working on launching the first podcast

Elias Jabbe is a communications consultant and founder of CaliCreativityCourse.co @Elias213 forum in Saudi Arabia and new shows at MSTDFR that will talk about all-new topics and introduce new podcasters,” he says. On my Emirates flight back to Dubai, I thought about possibilities for Saudi Arabia, such as live podcast tapings – which are popular in my hometown, Los Angeles – at Art Jameel’s 17,000-square-metre Hayy Creative Hub, opening in Jeddah in 2021. And I experienced déjà vu. I noticed another popular Saudi podcast, Abajora, on the Emirates ICE inflight entertainment system. After speaking with Abajora’s founder, Riyadh native Lubna Al Khamis, I learned that her partnerships with Emirates and the Misk Foundation’s Media Forum helped her podcast’s reach grow immensely. “The latest statistics illustrate that Abajora is number one in Saudi Arabia in terms of number of listeners (over 7 million) and SoundCloud followers (over 73,000),” said Al Khamis. From independently producing her first 15 shows to having Abajora become the first Arabic podcast available on Emirates flights and winning the Saudi Ministry of Culture’s New Media Award, Al Khamis’ rise epitomises podcasting’s potential in Saudi Arabia. Stay tuned.

June 28, 2020

‘EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY’: HOW SPOTIFY LISTENING HABITS “E CHANGED IN LOCKDOWN Sleep, cooking, housework, wellbeing and yoga playlists are all popular on the musicstreaming platform. By Gideon Spanier

very day is like Sunday,” Marco Bertozzi, vice-president, EMEA sales and multi-market sales at Spotify, said, explaining how listening on the platform has changed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “There’s a remarkable similarity between weekends and weekday,” Bertozzi said. “The majority of people are staying at home, so we are seeing these shifts in how people are listening and what people are listening on.” There is “a lot more usage on connected devices outside of mobile – we haven’t got the commute any more – so we’re seeing people listening across connected TVs, connected speakers, gaming consoles like PlayStations and Xboxes, and good, old desktop because so many people are working from home”. Bertozzi added that “we’re starting to see a shift in subject matter” in terms of listening habits as users seek out “feel-good” music content and podcasts. “We’re seeing that shift to much more people living their lives – listening to different playlists like ‘Throwback Thursday’-type playlists and feel-good environments,” he said. Sleep, cooking, housework, well-being and yoga playlists are all popular: “It’s really reflecting what they are doing at any given time.” In the early weeks of the crisis, users did consume a lot of “Covid- and corona-related podcasts”, but that has shifted. There is a “big emphasis on family, kids, comedy”, Bertozzi noted, adding: “We are encouraging advertisers to work within those positive, feel-good environments.” Spotify gets 90 per cent of its revenue from paying subscribers and about 10 per cent from its advertising-supported business, which is free and has a larger user base. Brands are being creative, Bertozzi said, pointing to how Amstel created a “Keeping the spirit of the bar alive” playlist that featured the background sounds of bars and restaurants in Spain for consumers who were missing going out. Other brands to use Spotify during lockdown include UK supermarket Tesco, which has run

‘‘BOOKED BUSINESS WAS CANCELLED OR PAUSED, AND PROGRAMMATIC BUYERS PULLED BACK.” “Think before you click”, a postcode-targeted campaign with two messages to support recruitment of drivers and encourage people to head to their local stores, and drinks brand Rubicon, which targeted people listening to “out of the ordinary” playlists at home, via a homepage takeover on desktop. Bertozzi declined to comment on ad sales or whether the amount of listening time on the platform has changed. He urged brands and agencies to focus on context and “get back to good, old-fashioned strategic comms planning” in terms of targeting audiences. Spotify told investors on its latest earnings call that its global ad sales suffered a “deceleration” in the last three weeks of March and were “more than 20 per cent” below its forecasts. “Previously booked business was cancelled or paused, and programmatic buyers pulled back spend,” Spotify said, adding that it has revised its forecasts for the rest of 2020. However, Daniel Ek, the founder, told investors that the disruption to consumers’ habits should help Spotify. “The trend line of moving from linear” platforms such as radio to “on-demand will likely be accelerated by the Covid19- crisis”, he said. Ek also predicted that “our advertisers will shift from pure reach to more measurable ad formats”, adding that digital ads are “obviously a lot better compared to analogue ad formats”.

GIDEON SPANIER is UK editor in chief of Campaign

June 28, 2020

RADIO IS FIGHTING FIT AND MORE THAN HOLDING ITS OWN AGAINST STREAMERS

services, as revealed in Radiocentre’s research report Audio Now. The two need states that are mainly served by ondemand services are “help me escape” (when people want to cut themselves off from the outside world and mentally recharge) and “amplify the moment” (taking control of background music to match the mood in social situations) – both of these are significantly less relevant when people are locked down at home. Conversely, the four need states dominated by radio – “lift my mood” (help energise me when engaged in other tasks), “provide social currency” (give me new things to talk about), “broaden my horizons” (help me discover new music) and “keep me in the loop” (keep me connected with what’s going on in the outside world) – all grow in importance when people are isolated. With many stuck inside under lockdown, Radiocentre’s new research (referenced above) explored people’s reasons for listening more: 90 per cent of respondents agreed that commercial radio kept them in touch with the outside world, while a similar number agreed that it kept them informed (89 per cent). A further 84 per cent – possibly missing regular social activities – said that radio keeps them company. In contrast, a report from Quartz highlights a These need states also help explain the continued fall in the number of plays for the top 200 songs resilience of radio listening across a decade of on Spotify across different markets as infection rates intensifying competition. grow and hypothesises that, rather than growing, According to Rajar Midas, linear radio currently music streaming may be actually falling because accounts for almost three-quarters of all time spent of coronavirus. with audio – the different data sets reviewed here To balance this, GlobalWebIndex’s March suggest that if on-demand music services are to coronavirus report found that 11 per cent of UK/ grow during the coronavirus outbreak, it will not US adults were considering paying for a Spotify be at the expense of linear radio’s dominant share subscription during Covid-19, implying that there is of listening. potentially untapped interest in music streaming. We all understand the need to accentuate the It’s not easy to find any directly comparable evidence positive. Radio will most certainly be fighting in the for current listening trends between radio and streaming services, but the same GlobalWebIndex study way Gideon urged us to. But let’s not lose our powers of analysis, and ensure that all claims are subjected also explores changes to in-home media consumption. to the same rigorous degree of scrutiny. That’s what The data reveals that 17 per cent of adults say they’ve been listening to more radio, compared with only 14 per makes for a healthy, thriving media ecology. cent claiming to listen to more streaming services. SIOBHAN KENNY is chief executive of Radiocentre. This article was Why is linear radio so resilient? The reason for this first published on Radiocentre’s website lies in the need states served by the different audio

Radiocentre’s Siobhan Kenny hits back at Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s claim that coronavirus crisis could hasten a shift ‘from linear to on-demand’

n the column on the previous page, Campaign’s UK editor in chief Gideon Spanier challenged the advertising industry to come out fighting. This wasn’t an exhortation to come out fighting each other, but rather a plea for the industry to stand up for itself and demonstrate clearly and loudly the value brands get back for every pound they spend on advertising. At Radiocentre, we don’t believe in scrapping with other media, as there is room for everyone in our rich media landscape. Occasionally, however, we do feel the need to challenge potentially misleading claims. The story opposite reviewed some analysis from Spotify about changing listening habits during the coronavirus crisis. But the same piece also referenced how, when responding to analysts’ questions about its Q1 2020 financial results, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek reassured investors by airing his belief that “the trend line of moving from linear to on-demand will likely be accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis”. This claim attracted a fair amount of press coverage, but little scrutiny of any supporting evidence. Let’s review the facts that are currently in the public arena about listening behaviour during Covid-19 and see how this stands up. It’s also worth reminding people why we listen to radio and why it’s not right for streaming companies to constantly say they are replacing radio. According to new research published by Radiocentre, 38 per cent of commercial radio listeners are tuning in for an extra hour and 45 minutes each day since lockdown amid the pandemic, as they adjust to spending more time at home. The driving force behind this increase is the “newly working from home” – with 45 per cent of this group listening to more radio now, on average for an additional two hours each day. These figures suggest that any listening lost due to the reduction in commuting has been more than replaced by a boost in home listening. These findings follow evidence from commercial broadcasters and radio stations across the UK that showed a double-digit increase in digital listening following the beginning of the lockdown – with both Bauer Media and Global reporting a rise in daily reach of 15 per cent.

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Abu Dhabi Classic FM

Al Oula Radio

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 91.6; Dubai 87.9; Al Ain 105.2 WEBSITE: www.adradio.ae/classic-fm PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Khushbu Thakkar: Khushbu.Thakkar@admedia.ae; +971 50 616 5073 LAUNCHED: 2010 LANGUAGE: English LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media FORMAT: Classical music DEMOGRAPHICS: All English-speaking listeners, with a skew towards Western expats; affluent social economic classes A & B; aged 35 and older; male and female

FREQUENCY: 107.4 WEBSITE: www.aloularadio.ae MEDIA REP: MEMS (Choueiri Group): 04 454 5454 LAUNCHED: 2014 LANGUAGE: Emirati Arabic PARENT COMPANY: Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center FORMAT: Patriotic and traditional radio station that carries Emirati content DEMOGRAPHICS: 69.8 per cent males; 30.2 per cent female; (58.9 per cent aged 15 to 34) PRIME TIME SHOWS: Sabah Al Oula (Salem Mohammad); Radio Al Bayt (Samah Al Abbar); Lil Shabab Rai (Amal Al Mullah); Hayyak Fi Bladi (Shirina Salem)

Abu Dhabi FM

106.2 Big FM

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 90.00; Dubai: 98.40; RAK: 89.70; Fujairah: 106.00; Habshan: 100.10; Liwa: 103.70; Jabel Dhana: 97.30 WEBSITE: www.adradio.ae/abu-dhabi-fm PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Mahmoud Eldeeb (mahmoud.eldeeb@admedia.ae) LAUNCHED: 1969 LANGUAGE: Arabic and English LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media DEMOGRAPHICS: Local and expat Arabs; aged 35+

WEBSITE: Bigfm.ae PARENT COMPANY: Fun Asia Group HEAD OFFICE: Dubai NUMBER OF STAFF: 35-50 FOUNDED: 2017 (parent company: 2001) LANGUAGE: English, Hindi, Urdu FORMAT: Adult contemporary; a station that plays pure music all day LOCATION OF MAST: Umm Al Quwain DEMOGRAPHICS: South Asians 15+ FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: The Big Morning Show (7am-11am), Eat Play Love (1pm-4pm), ASAP (4pm-8pm) MEDIA REPS: Sunny Ahuja (+971 55 674 4028); Gaurav Khurana (+971 50 944 3628); sales@bigfm.ae

Al Arabiya

104.8 CHANNEL 4

FREQUENCY: 99.0 WEBSITE: 99fm.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Jennifer Moaccadie (jmoaccadie@arn.ae) LAUNCHED: 2001 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: Arabic music DEMOGRAPHICS: 70 per cent male; 30 per cent female

WEBSITE: www.channel4fm.com PARENT COMPANY: Ajman Independent Studio HEAD OFFICE: Ajman YEAR FOUNDED: 1997 LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Contemporary hit radio LOCATION OF MAST: Ajman BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Ajman Government DEMOGRAPHICS: Male and female; aged 18-40 FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: Breakfast with JJ & Nimi; Evenings with Eve MEDIA REP: Mohammed Jundi, network sales director: +971 4 567 0444; mjundi@ch4.ae

Al Khaleejiya

City

FREQUENCY: 100.9 WEBSITE: 1009.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Jennifer Moaccadie (jmoaccadie@arn.ae) LAUNCH: 2003 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: Khaleeji music DEMOGRAPHICS: 55 per cent male; 45 per cent female

FREQUENCY: 101.6 WEBSITE: city1016.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Rohit Damodar (rdamodar@arn.ae) LAUNCH: 2002 LANGUAGE: Hindi FORMAT: Bollywood music DEMOGRAPHICS: 76 per cent male; 24 per cent female

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Club FM 99.6

Dubai Eye

FREQUENCY: 99.6 WEBSITE: www.clubfm.ae PARENT COMPANY: Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company MEDIA REP: P S Srikumar, general manager, GCC: 052 999 3442; srikumar@mpp.co.in LAUNCHED: June 2016 LANGUAGE: Malyalam BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Fujairah Media FORMAT: Entertainment, information, news, songs and creative campaigns DEMOGRAPHICS: 21-45 years old

FREQUENCY: 103.8 WEBSITE: dubaieye1038.com PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Jennifer Moaccadie (jmoaccadie@arn.ae) LAUNCHED: 2004 LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Talk DEMOGRAPHICS: 70 per cent male; 30 per cent female

Dubai 92

Dubai Radio.

FREQUENCY: 92.0 WEBSITE: Dubai92.com PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Jennifer Moaccadie (jmoaccadie@arn.ae) LAUNCHED: 1971 LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Adult contemporary DEMOGRAPHICS: 75 per cent male; 25 per cent female

FREQUENCY: 93.0 WEBSITE: www.dmi.ae/dubai fm/ PARENT COMPANY: DMI MEDIA REP: MEMS (Choueiri Group): mems@choueirigroup.com; +971 4 454 5454 LAUNCHED: 2014 LANGUAGE: Arabic BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Dubai authorities FORMAT: Entertainment, UAE radio station that offers pan-Arab and Khaleeji content and music DEMOGRAPHICS: 52.3 per cent male; 47.7 per cent female PRIME-TIME SHOWS: Sabah Jameel (Abdallah Ismaiil); Cramel (Fatima Abed al Rahman & Ahed Afandi); Shari3 Al Saada ( Jad chheib & Mahra Al Abdallah)

RADIO AT ITS PEAK

f ever there was a time when radio was at its best, it is now. It is creating fresh content each day and disseminating the trusted information bundled with entertainment. Radio now is far beyond being just a car companion and has become a constant companion that has given people the support to get through. This is the Era of Radio. It will go down in the pages of history not just as the time when everything was at a standstill, but also as a time when radio saw its best days and ruled the roost. While most production work is on hold and entertainment mediums are re-running content, radio is the only infotainment medium that is live, and this is what makes it all the more significant. Radio has therefore become a common communication platform that connects brands and people through meaningful interactions. Channel 4 Radio Network has revamped its programming to be more contextually relevant, reaching out to people from various nationalities, cultures and income groups in four different languages with the most influential and popular presenters in the country. This also makes us the right choice for advertisers expecting to get maximum reach and return on investment. Furthermore, Channel 4 Radio Network’s Creative Cell will lay special emphasis on content integrations and branded content. This will open the way to a whole lot of segments and features designed to meet specific client campaign requirements. Client brands can gauge unprecedented engagement and recall amongst their target group through this approach. The programming line up across all our stations – Channel 4, Al Rabia, Radio 4 and Gold FM – is getting revitalised with fresh shows, entertaining content and more engaging features. Channel 4 Radio Network, with 3.6 million daily listeners (Ipsos, March 2020), is taking things to the next level by launching our fifth radio station: Radio Zain. This is a one-of-its-kind golden-era Arabic music station targeting the 35+ age group. Twenty years back we started our journey with you, and 20 years later we are ready to continue the journey with you. We assure you paramount support and commitment to all your business endeavours.

By Mohammad Jundi, network sales director, Channel 4 Radio Network

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Dubai Quran

Gilli FM

FREQUENCY: 91.4 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: Religious

FREQUENCY: 106.5 WEBSITE: radiogilli.com LANGUAGE: Tamil

Emarat FM

101.3 GOLD FM

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 95.8; Al Ain: 94.9; Dubai: 97.1; Ras Al Khaimah: 88.5; Fujairah: 103.9; Jabel Dhana: 92.4; Liwa: 95.6; Habshan: 98.4; Bahrain: 92.3 WEBSITE: adradio.ae/emarat-fm PARENT COMPANY: AD Media MEDIA REP: Yaqoub Alhammadi: Yaqoub.Alhammadi@admedia.ae; 050 106 3335 LAUNCHED: 1995 LANGUAGE: Arabic LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media DEMOGRAPHICS: Local audience; aged 18-35

WEBSITE: www.Gold1013fm.com PARENT COMPANY: Ajman Independent Studio HEAD OFFICE: Ajman FOUNDED: 2010 LANGUAGE: Malayalam FORMAT: Malayalam Music & Entertainment LOCATION OF MAST: Ajman BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Ajman Government DEMOGRAPHICS: male and female; aged 18-40 MEDIA REP: Mohammed Jundi, network sales director: +971 4 567 0444; mjundi@ch4.ae FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: Morning Drive with Samira & Vysakh; Sunset Drive with Meera Nandan

Flowers 94.7 FM

Hit

FREQUENCY: 94.7 WEBSITE: www.flowersfm.com PARENT COMPANY: Flowers International Group LAUNCHED: May 2017 LANGUAGE: Malayalam and English BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Dolphin Recording Studios DEMOGRAPHICS: Men and women; aged 25 to 45

FREQUENCY: 96.7 WEBSITE: hit967.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Rohit Damodar (rdamodar@arn.ae) LAUNCH: 2004 LANGUAGE: Malayalam FORMAT: Malayalam music DEMOGRAPHICS: 80 per cent male; 20 per cent female

Fujairah FM

Montecarlo

FREQUENCY: 92.6 LANGUAGE: Arabic

FREQUENCY: 95.3 LANGUAGE: Arabic

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Noor Dubai FM

Radio 1

FREQUENCY: 93.9 in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates; 102,9 in Al Ain WEBSITE: www.dmi.ae/noordubai/ PARENT COMPANY :DMI MEDIA REP: MEMS (Choueiri Group): mems@choueirigroup.com; +971 4 454 5454 LAUNCHED :2009 LANGUAGE: Arabic BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Dubai authorities FORMAT: Social, health, sports LISTENER DEMOGRAPHICS: 58.4 per cent male, 41.6 per cent female; 15.9 per cent aged 15-24, 35.7 per cent aged 25-34, 26 per cent aged 35-44, 21.8 per cent aged over 45 PRIME-TIME SHOWS: Al Bath al Mubasher (Rashed Al Kharji “Abou Omar”); Al Salfa Wa Ma Fiha (Ahmed Al Ketbi); Rouhak Ryiadyia (Kifah Al Kaabi)

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi 100.5 FM; Dubai 104.1 FM WEBSITE: www.adradio.ae/Radio-1 PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Khushbu Thakkar (Khushbu.Thakkar@admedia.ae; +971 50 616 5073) LANGUAGE: English LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media FORMAT: Top 40 ,usic LISTENER DEMOGRAPHICS: Westernised expats & listeners of English radio; 18-30 years old; male and females; professionals and university-educated with mid- to high-range income

Pearl Radio FREQUENCY: 102 WEBSITE: www.pearlfm.ae LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Shows for parents and children

Radio 2 FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi 106 FM; Dubai 99.3 FM WEBSITE: www.adradio.ae/Radio-2 PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Khushbu Thakkar (Khushbu.Thakkar@admedia.ae; +971 50 616 5073) LANGUAGE: English LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media FORMAT: Adult contemporary and feel-good music LISTENER DEMOGRAPHICS: Westernised expats and listeners of English radio, 30-45 years old; male and females; professionals and university-educated with mid- to high-range income

Pulse 95 Radio

89.1 RADIO 4

WEBSITE: www.pulse95radio.com PARENT COMPANY: Sharjah Broadcasting Authority; +971 6 501 1355/ ‎ +971 6 501 1111; Pulse95@sba.net.ae; info@pulse95radio.com HEAD OFFICE: Sharjah FOUNDED: 2018 LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Light talk-radio station with acoustic music covers BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Sharjah Government LISTENER DEMOGRAPHICS: Native and non-native English-speaking; cultured mature professionals and middle-class family-oriented individuals; male and female; aged 25-45 FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: Morning Majlis (7-10am; a business and current affairs show); Life Beats (10-12pm; a lifestyle show on people and topics that inspire); Yalla Home (5-8pm; an infotainment light drive-time show)

PARENT COMPANY: Ajman Independent Studio WEBSITE: www.radio4fm.com HEAD OFFICE: Ajman FOUNDED: 1999 LANGUAGE: Hindi FORMAT: Bollywood music LOCATION OF MAST: Ajman BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Ajman Government MEDIA REP: Mohammed Jundi, network sales director: mjundi@ch4.ae; +971 4 567 0444 DEMOGRAPHICS: Male and female aged 18-40 FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: DaBang Mornings with Aseem & Prince; Most Wanted with Abhijeet

Quran Kareem

107.8 RADIO AL RABIA

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 98.1; Dubai: 88.2; Al Ain: 88.6; Fujairah: 95.6; Ras Al Khaimah: 105.2; Jabel Dhana: 87.7; Liwa: 89.3; Habshan: 88.8 WEBSITE: adradio.ae/Quran-Kareem PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Khushbu Thakkar: Khushbu.Thakkar@admedia.ae; +971 50 616 5073 LAUNCHED: 1979 LANGUAGE: Arabic LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media DEMOGRAPHICS: Local and expat Arabs; all ages

PARENT COMPANY: Ajman Independent Studio WEBSITE: www.alrabiafm.com HEAD OFFICE: Ajman FOUNDED: 2000 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT:Arabic music & entertainment LOCATION OF MAST: Ajman BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Ajman Government MEDIA REP: Mohammed Jundi, network sales director: mjundi@ch4.ae; +971 4 567 0444 DEMOGRAPHICS: Male and female aged 18-40 FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: Al Rabia Wal Nas with Abu Rashid; Sabah il Kher ya Emirates with Rakelle and Jad

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Radio Asia 94.7 FM

RAK Holy Quran

PARENT COMPANY: Dolphin Recording Studio HEAD OFFICE: Dubai NUMBER OF STAFF: 15 FOUNDED: 1995 LANGUAGE: Malyalam FORMAT: Contemporary hit radio LOCATION OF MAST:Ras Al Khaimah BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Government of Ras Al Khaimah MEDIA REP: jaya@radioasia.ae

FREQUENCY: 87.6 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: Religious

Radio Mirchi UAE

Sharjah Radio

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 97.3; Dubai: 88.8; Al Ain: 95.6 WEBSITE: www.radiomirchiuae.ae PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Ibrahim Alrais: ibrahim.alrais@admedia.ae LAUNCHED: 2011 LANGUAGE: Hindi/Urdu LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media FORMAT: Bollywood music DEMOGRAPHICS: Indian and Pakistani expats; aged 25-40; young working-class professionals and entrepreneurs; male and female Prime time shows: Mirchi Mornings; Bumper to Bumper

FREQUENCY: 94.4 WEBSITE: sba.net.ae/ar/radio/channel/13 PARENT COMPANY: Sharjah Broadcasting Authority HEAD OFFICE: Sharjah, UAE FOUNDED: 1972 (re-launched in 2000) FORMAT: Arabic LOCATION OF MAST: Al-Khan, Sharjah BROADCAST LICENSE LESSOR: Sharjah Government DEMOGRAPHICS: Emiratis and Arab expats FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES: Al Khat Al Mubashir; Al Atheer; comedy drama “Halees” MEDIA REP: Luay Dabbas: luay.dabbas@sba.shj.ae: +971 50 718 8476

Radio Sawa

Sharjah Quran

FREQUENCY: 90.5 LANGUAGE: Arabic

FREQUENCY: 102.7 WEBSITE: sba.net.ae/ar/radio/channel/12 PARENT COMPANY: Sharjah Broadcasting Authority HEAD OFFICE: Sharjah, UAE YEAR FOUNDED : 2012 FORMAT: Arabic LOCATION OF MASTS: Halwan, Al-Abar, Sharjah BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Sharjah Government DEMOGRAPHICS: Muslims; Arabs and non-Arabs

Radio Shoma

Sky News Arabia

FREQUENCY: 93.4 WEBSITE: radioshoma934.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Ravi Earland (ravi.earland@arn.ae) LAUNCH: 2011 LANGUAGE: Farsi FORMAT: Farsi hit music DEMOGRAPHICS: 80 per cent male; 20 per cent female

FREQUENCY: 90.3 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: News

RAK Arabic

Star FM

FREQUENCY: 92.2 LANGUAGE: Arabic

FREQUENCY: Abu Dhabi: 92.4; Dubai: 99.9; Al Ain: 100.1 WEBSITE: www.adradio.ae/starfm/ PARENT COMPANY: Abu Dhabi Media MEDIA REP: Mahmoud Eldeeb (mahmoud.eldeeb.admedia.ae) LAUNCHED: 2009 LANGUAGE: Arabic LOCATION OF MAST: Abu Dhabi BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Abu Dhabi Media DEMOGRAPHICS: Arabs aged 15-35

2020 UAE RADIO GUIDE

June 28, 2020

Suno 1024 FM

Virgin Radio Dubai

PARENT COMPANY: Dolphin Recording Studio LLC HEAD OFFICE: Dubai NUMBER OF STAFF: 20 FOUNDED: 2011 LANGUAGE: Hindi FORMAT: Commercial hit radio LOCATION OF MAST: Ras Al Khaimah BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: Government of Ras Al Khaimah MEDIA REP: joydeep@radioasia.ae

FREQUENCY: 104.4 WEBSITE: Virginradiodubai.com PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Jennifer Moaccadie (jmoaccadie@arn.ae) LAUNCHED: 2008 LANGUAGE: English FORMAT: Hit music DEMOGRAPHIC: 67 per cent male; 33 per cent female PRIME-TIME SHOWS: The Kris Fade Show (Kris Fade, Priti Malek, Big Rossi)

Tag

Radio ZAIN 103.2

FREQUENCY: 91.1 WEBSITE: tag911.ae PARENT COMPANY: Arabian Radio Network MEDIA REP: Ravi Earland (ravi.earland@arn.ae) LAUNCHED: 2013 LANGUAGE: Filipino FORMAT: Filipino hit music DEMOGRAPHICS: 65 per cent male; 35 per cent female PRIME TIME SHOWS: Gandang U-maga (Bluebird and Keri Belle)

PARENT COMPANY: Ajman Independent Studio WEBSITE: www.radiozainfm.ae HEAD OFFICE: Ajman FOUNDED: 2020 LANGUAGE; Arabic FORMAT: Golden-era Arabic music LOCATION OF MAST: Ajman BROADCAST LICENSE LESSOR: Ajman Government LISTENER DEMOGRAPHICS: Male and female; aged 35+ MEDIA REP: Mohammed Jundi, network sales director: mjundi@ch4.ae; +971 4 567 0444

89.4 Tamil FM

Zayed FM

PARENT COMPANY: Aaren World Media & Advertising HEAD OFFICE: Dubai NUMBER OF STAFF: 20 FOUNDED: 2015 LANGUAGE: Tamil LOCATION OF MAST: Ras Al Khaimah BROADCAST LICENCE LESSOR: RAK Broadcasting Authority MEDIA REP: contact@tamilfm.fm

FREQUENCY: 97.6 LANGUAGE: Arabic FORMAT: Religious

June 28, 2020

LISTEN-FROM-HOME Nielsen’s Sarah Messer finds UAE listeners are still ga-ga for radio under lockdown, but their habits have changed significantly By SARAH MESSER, director of media, Nielsen MENAP

arch 23, 2020. It’s a date that is scribbled in thick black marker on the wall planner in my kitchen. That’s the date Nielsen closed the doors of its UAE offices and sent us all to work from home for ‘a while’ to safely wait out the oncoming pandemic.

‘‘INSTEAD OF A HUGE DECLINE IN LISTENING LEVELS, DATA SHOWED A SHIFT IN DEVICES BEING USED TO CONSUME RADIO.”

Those first few days for most people were a flurry of activity – “holy-moly, I’ve got two kids who need home-schooling/ three dogs/a squawking parrot/a wife or husband also working from home/ no suitable office to make 12 hours of video calls comfortable/and my wifi can’t support a 15-person meeting and Netflix…” [delete as appropriate]. And then, as the so-called new normal started to settle in, and we ventured out of our home cocoon once every three days for emergency purposes and groceries only, we started to realise just how much the world outside had changed. Nothing on the roads, no one walking the streets, empty supermarkets. Silence. From the media consumption within our own households alone, we all suspected something had changed. I for one assumed everyone was tuning into the news more to see the latest updates, and perhaps more TV screen time to fill the empty hours. And surely the biggest casualty was going to be radio... silence isn’t a word we generally associate with the radio industry. At Nielsen, we measure all radio listening in the UAE from people aged 10+. In Q4 2019 – and showing absolute consistency with the same metric across all measured quarters since 2017 – more than three quarters (78 per cent) of radio listening happens while travelling. With no commuting, and no school run, we were sure there would be a significant impact on radio listening in Q1 2020. There was indeed an impact, but it was not as we had expected. Instead of a huge decline in listening levels, the first quarter 2020 radio data showed a shift in devices being used to consume radio content and the time of day of consumption; an increase in listening via digital through the internet and mobile, and day-part listening shifted to later in the day, a pattern we usually only see during Ramadan months. There were some overall declines in total listening levels, of course; the lack of commuting had to have some toll. But it looked to us as though people were loyal to their choice of radio stations and made sure there was still room for radio in their stay-at-home lives. Interesting insights were also observed by the Nielsen US Audio team in these early lockdown days. The US is a very established radio market that Nielsen

has been measuring since the 1930s. The US broadcasters were wondering the same thing: Are we losing all our listeners? On March 26, Nielsen US released the results of a study that showed radio was being used as a trusted source of information, keeping people both informed and connected during the lockdown. They also noted that listening was shifting to more devices. Our listening diaries seemed to be showing similar patterns as well. So, were people using radio as one of the mediums to stop them going lockdown ga-ga? We at Nielsen UAE wanted to know more so we launched an online survey in mid-April to a nationally representative sample of residents in the UAE. The purpose of the study was to understand all media consumption under lockdown and what was changing. We found some fascinating behaviours. People who said they were now consuming less TV claimed to be consuming other media instead. When asked specifically about radio listening, more than two fifths (43 per cent) of people said they were listening to less radio in the car. However, instead, many people were increasing their listening to radio in different places; 35 per cent claimed to listen more from home, 33 per cent more on tablet or mobile devices, 35 per cent more on a computer or laptop, and 31 per cent were listening to more radio podcasts. Those who were consuming radio in these places were on average all listening to about 2 hours of radio per day. A final but useful data point from this study, that should speak to any marketer who has been thinking they should remove radio from their plans; we asked people how comfortable they are with advertising being placed in various types of media – from news to sports content, TV shows and movies, websites, etc. Of all the media listed, radio received the highest score for UAE residents being comfortable with ad content being aired around programming. Is radio relevant, current and impactful? According to our data, you bet it is. Sources: Nielsen UAE RAM Q4 2019 and Q1 2020; Nielsen Survey on Sentiment and Media Behaviour April 2020; Nielsen Audio US survey March and June 2020.

June 28, 2020

I KNOW YOU L HEAR ME, BUT ARE YOU LISTENING? Voice. The final frontier. These are the times for startups and enterprises to go where we have not been before. To re-explore how our increasingly digital world can embrace the spoken word as successfully as civilizations before us. By Hammad Khan

ike many others, I have used the recent lockdown period due to Covid-19 as an opportunity to reinvest in other forms of media – specifically by upgrading my podcasting studio. We are often guilty of unconscious bias towards tactile screen technology (such as visual UI, graphics, and video) when we think of digital channels. However, there is far more to audio than just podcasting, even if that medium has seen yet another boom in production and consumption of late. In traditional audio conference calls, we have an established pattern: mundane small talk, repeating yourself after sporadic joiners/ leavers, and the inevitable silences when somebody gives a monologue on mute. With Zoom and Teams, we’ve seen new behaviours become commonplace, with even the classic disruption apology of “sorry, that’s my kid in the background” becoming more acceptable than it used to be. It could also be argued that in some cases it even helps to create more empathy with your attendees, who realise you are just as human as they are. The human voice, both spoken and heard, remains the most potent form of communication we have at our disposal. Thinking this through, it’s surprising just how many voice-based channels we already have in everyday use. However, they don’t form as large a part of a digital strategy, transformation or campaigns as they could.

On reflection, in the last few days alone, I’ve used digital voice interactions more than I would have predicted: Changed the AC setting using my car’s voice controls; Spoke to the virtual assistant of my local bank about a transaction; Followed yes/no prompts on an interactive voice response (IVR) when switching home services; Sent voice notes back and forth on Whatsapp with a mechanic who can’t write English; Had countless calls with colleagues on Microsoft Teams; Monitored my kids’ live school lessons on Zoom; Listened to ARN news on the radio in my car and through an app at home; Changed the playlist and volume on the Google Home speaker; Searched for a movie on Amazon Prime using my FireTV voice control. Those are many channels that are fully voiceenabled already, and it feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface. We cannot continue to convince ourselves that a screen or touchbased interface is the default interaction to put at the centre of a strategy, product, service, or campaign. And if it was ever in doubt that we shouldn’t only focus on the latest and greatest technologies, just look at the overnight disruption brought by Covid-19, which has affected previously pioneering technology such as thumbprints and facial recognition, making them almost unusable for frequent authentications, transactions and selections.

I’m old enough to remember the early versions of Dragon Dictate, which promised us natural language narration becoming the norm. Twenty years later, it’s still not even commonplace for short statements, let alone more substantial content creation. I believe that as well as the technical challenges presented with voice (such as language, accent, noise, etc.), there is also a more human barrier to overcome that helps with adoption, advocacy and effectiveness. To give an example of this, it wasn’t until the interface for spoken dialogue was given a personified name that we found it natural enough to go from a Nokia Communicator to the Star Trek Communicator (aka the modern smartphone). Alexa, Siri and Cortana are almost sentient beings, and even our parents and children are talking with them in increasingly sophisticated ways. “Hey Google” is the notable odd one out, with the brand choosing instead to flex its iconic status as a verb by retaining the moniker in its audio branding. The result, for me at least, is the feeling that I am still interacting with Google as a technology and not as a trusted confidant. The alternative isn’t without challenges, though, and who knows if Alexa, Siri and Cortana are listening to whether we are two-timing them with our requests for the weather update or a Spotify playlist. We are creating relationships with technology through voice. As this is set to expand, we need to ask ourselves a whole new set of questions as to why, how and what this involves. Verbal communication is one of our strongest skills. Yet, we seldom use that to create a connection with brands and organisations in the same way we do our visual sight (video/advertising/content), tactile feeling (malls, products, spaces), or even taste (food and beverage outlets) and smell (perfumery). Our under-utilised sonic sense is an opportunity for innovation beyond a podcast or smart assistant. In the Middle East, we have such diversity and cultural specifics, and it feels as if we could do more to co-create from within. I’ll leave you with some thought-starters to consider: What would the voice of your brand sound like? Is it viable or advisable to have multiple voices for multiple audiences, in the same way visuals, copy and creative are adapted in campaign content? How do you sustain relevant messaging in these voices? Do we need to retain voice talent in the same way we have art directors curating our brands visually or through motion? What is the measurement framework for vocal channels, and how do we establish the metrics to monitor them while remaining cognisant of more listening and privacy conflicts? How do we safely store, search, and share voice media?

Hammad Khan is head of experience imagination, Accenture Interactive

‘‘OUR UNDER-UTILISED SONIC SENSE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION BEYOND A PODCAST OR SMART ASSISTANT.”

June 28, 2020

across Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram this year, a rise of 11.5 per cent from 2019. This marks a downgrade of $5.3bn from the preoutbreak forecast and gives Facebook a 13.8 per cent share of global advertising investment.

he damage to global adspend in 2020 caused by the coronavirus downturn will have a less severe impact than that of the financial crisis of 2009, a forecast from Warc has found. Warc’s report said global adspend will fall by 8.1 per cent this year to $563bn, compared with the 12.7 per cent contraction in 2009. In its report, published at the end of May, the research organisation said record-high spending during this year’s US presidential campaigns will stymie the US ad market decline to 3.5 per cent in 2020, while stronger-than-expected first-quarter results showed that key media owners were in relatively good health heading into the dire second and third quarters. The UK is second to France in terms of adspend declines in major European countries. UK adspend is forecast to shrink by 16.4 per cent, compared with a decline of 18.7 per cent in France. Germany is expecting a 6.1 per cent fall. Before the global pandemic took hold and caused economies and societies to go into varying degrees of lockdown, Warc had forecast in February that global adspend would grow by 7.1 per cent this year. Warc now says traditional media will fare far worse than online, with ad investment set to fall by $51.4bn (down 16.3 per cent) this year. Declines will be recorded across cinema (-31.6 per cent), out-ofhome (-21.7 per cent), magazines (-21.5 per cent), newspapers (-19.5 per cent), radio (-16.2 per cent) and TV (-13.8 per cent). For online advertising, growth will slow to just 0.6 per cent in 2020, while social media (9.8 per cent), online video (5.0 per cent) and online search (0.9 per cent) are expected to record growth but at far lower rates than Warc previously projected. Online classified is set to fall by 10.3 per cent. Meanwhile, in terms of sectors, the travel and tourism category is expected to record the steepest decline, with a forecast of -31.2 per cent for 2020 representing a $7.2bn reduction in spend compared with 2019, to a total of $16.0bn. Leisure and entertainment (-28.7 per cent to $16.4bn), financial services (-18.2 per cent to $39.2bn), retail (-15.2 per cent to $57.2bn) and

WE’VE SEEN WORSE

The global adspend slump is expected to be less severe than the 2009 crash, as Warc predicts global adspend will fall by 8.1 per cent this year. By Omar Oakes

automotive (-11.4 per cent to $57.6bn) are all set to witness sharp declines this year. TRENDS BY PLATFORM Alphabet: Advertising revenue across Google Search, YouTube and Google Network Members (third parties that host Google ads) is forecast to rise by just 1.6 per cent to $137.1bn this year – the company accounts for almost one in four dollars (24.4 per cent) spent on advertising worldwide. Facebook: Advertisers are expected to spend $77.6bn

TRENDS BY MEDIA AND FORMAT TV: Spend is forecast to fall 13.8 per cent to $159.9bn, accounting for 28.4 per cent of all global spend this year. A third of the global TV total is in the US, where TV spend is set to fall 9.6 per cent ($5.8bn) to $54.7bn, despite a boost from presidential campaign spending. Out-of-home: Spend is expected to fall by 21.7 per cent, or $8.7bn, in 2020 compared with a previous forecast of 5.9 per cent growth. Cinema: Brand investment is set to fall by almost a third (-31.6 per cent) this year, but Warc thinks the sector should recoup these losses in 2021. Radio: Investment is projected to fall by 16.2 per cent – or $5.1bn – this year, compared with a preoutbreak forecast of 1.8 per cent growth. Newspapers: Spend on print newspapers is forecast to fall by $7.6bn, or 19.5 per cent, in 2020, compared with a pre-outbreak forecast of -5.9 per cent. Magazines: Advertiser spend will fall by more than a fifth (-21.5 per cent), or $3.4bn. Social media: Social formats combined are expected to be the strongest performers in 2020, recording total growth of 9.8 per cent to $96bn. This does, however, represent a downgrade of $6.4bn when compared with Warc’s pre-outbreak forecast. Online video: Growth is forecast to slow to 5.0 per cent (to $50.3bn) this year, equivalent to 8.9 per cent of global adspend. Search: Growth will ease to 0.9 per cent in 2020 after a downgrade of $14.1bn from February’s forecast. TRENDS BY REGION Europe: European adspend is forecast to fall by 12.2 per cent ($18.1bn) to $129.9bn this year, with France leading key market decline at 18.7 per cent (down $3.1bn to $13.4bn). The UK (-16.4 per cent, down $5.1bn to $31.3bn), Germany (-6.1 per cent, down $1.5bn to $24.9bn), Spain (-6.0 per cent, down $500m to $6.6bn), Italy (-21.7 per cent, down $2.1bn to $7.6bn) and Russia (-12.3 per cent, down $1.2bn to $8.5bn) will also record sharp falls. North America: This is the region where 39.5 per cent of global adspend is transacted. Ad investment is expected to fall by 3.7 per cent, or $8.5bn, to $222.5bn this year, encompassing a 3.5 per cent fall in the US (down $7.7bn to $221.3bn) and a 6.5 per cent dip in Canada (to $11.5bn). This compares with preoutbreak forecasts of 8.8 per cent and 1.9 per cent growth respectively. Asia-Pacific: Adspend is expected to fall 7.7 per cent ($14.4bn) to $173.5bn in 2020, accounting for 30.8 per cent of the global total. China (-8.6 per cent, down $7.5bn to $80.0bn), Japan (-6.4 per cent, down $2.5bn to $36.2bn) and Australia (-8.2 per cent, down $1.1bn to $11.9bn) are all set to record declines. Indian growth will ease to 0.7 per cent to $9.4bn in 2020. Latin America: Adspend is set to drop 20.7 per cent (by $5.6bn) to $21.4bn this year, led by a sharp decline in Brazil (-22.5 per cent, down $3.4bn to $11.5bn), where the Covid-19 outbreak has been particularly acute. Middle East: While not as severely impacted by coronavirus as other regions, adspend is still set to fall 15.1 per cent (by $1.8bn) to $10.4bn in 2020, as oilrich economies suffer from falling commodity prices. Africa: Spend is expected to decrease by 19.5 per cent to $5.3bn this year, although this could be more severe if the outbreak worsens in the region.

PARTNER CONTENT

June 28, 2020

Precise results Boopin’s Shadi Abdulhadi explains how performance marketing can give businesses measurable conversions through digital channels

here is a dramatic decline taking place in traditional business models, which has been initiated by prolonged lockdowns from the global coronavirus pandemic. That caused big and small clients alike to change their approach to digital. The focus has shifted from an earlier digital economy viewpoint that focused on driving awareness – given footfall parameters were healthy and stable in brick-and-mortar locations to complete a purchase – to one that is now closely connected to e-commerce or in-app shopping platforms’ ROI. Automotive brands such as AGMC and Nissan, for example, have a fully embraced e-commerce presence where a user can literally buy a car online and pay for it the same way they would buy groceries online. Amid the shrinking budgets of clients, it is time for performance marketing, which we also call ‘Precision Marketing’. That is where performance tools and customer-focused audience profiles are helping create more accurate ROI-focused solutions for clients. Those clients have had access to rich first-party data for a long time, but were not able to bridge it with the digital ecosystem touchpoints that they relied on in their marketing plans with their existing digital agencies. Now, tools capable of using the first-party data from physical stores and translating them in a way to connect with their user base (and even to go further and do look-alike modelling) have filled a lot of gaps for the clients and are making this digital transformation swift. Working with leading data management platforms and customer data platforms (DMPs and CDPs), we are approaching the challenge of helping our partners’ businesses grow with two hats on. The approach combines unifying customer data silos for our clients, while at the same time upgrading their path to e-commerce by creating the right connection points with social and search to ensure a seamless customer experience. The consumer journey starts in that same digital ecosystem that a brand offers while it is promoting offers on new

“The current situation we are facing requires every marketer to redesign their performance approach .” Shadi Abdulhadi is Founder and CEO of Boopin

products. But instead of leaving potential customers there to only generate likes and engagement, it focuses predominantly on check-outs through online purchase. With the translation of the business models to complete or semi e-commerce models, clients have to rely on more in-depth metrics now to gauge the performance of their marketing efforts. The clients need to focus more on the digital journey of a consumer and use detailed reports to understand the weak touchpoints in the consumer path to a sale or conversion. A good example of how we are approaching ROI creation is our work for a major automotive dealer in the UAE. By building a precise profile for its most valuable target by nameplate, using its own first-party data, we were able to use its current digital ecosystem to target that group precisely and lead them by hand to a dedicated e-commerce portal that was linked seamlessly with regional and global awareness landing pages. A year ago, that approach would have relied on the showroom sales team to follow up and invite the customers for a test drive, but now a more singular path to purchase meets them at every touch point in that digital ecosystem, increasing the chances of them actually going for the down-payment option on the vehicle of choice. All interactions across that digital ecosystem lead the customer by hand towards a purchase, no matter what stop in that ecosystem the customer was on. Each industry is undergoing its own unique set of challenges. The key point is that the challenges these industries are facing can vary significantly based on the services or products provided to customers, where companies need to adapt to changes in consumer behaviour, be ready to bounce back stronger and outline a smarter marketing strategy. The current situation we are facing requires every marketer to redesign their performance approach and develop ongoing experimentation to deliver an optimum customer experience, and understand how to build customer-centric performance strategies with a full end-to-end consumer journey approach. This will only be possible with the right set of ad tech tools. By far the travel, hospitality and entertainment industries are among the worst hit by Covid-19 and probably the last ones to start recovering. With our clients in this sphere, we are working to focus on what we call communitybuilding with their ad spends. The reason for this is lower inventory costs and a surge in internet usage and average

media consumption. We have changed the content strategies for these clients to be less ‘salesy’ and focus on metrics such as interactions instead. We started focusing on the new reporting metrics and KPIs and saw overwhelming growth results for their digital assets across websites and social handles. The most important thing for any industry in the current climate is to adapt to the situation and translate its efforts to achieve the objectives of marketing in the ongoing situation. In times like these, it is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change. We at Boopin have been adopting the latest ad tech tools globally, and invested heavily in numerous tools that will scale and provide continuous improvements to every aspect for our clients’ digital strategies to improve their performance marketing practices. We have utilised the tools to adapt to the change and are constantly learning to work with our clients to accomplish continuous success and come out of this crisis stronger and better.

June 28, 2020

n today’s world, teeming with motivational gurus and self-help pros willing to share their tips on how to become super successful, I am a misfit. I am the fallen angel you missed in the Bible of life. I will not take you down the scenic tree-lined path to success. Instead I will talk about the one thing that scares the living daylights out of you, the one word that you fear and loathe the most: failure. Sure, many of your gurus have touched upon failure they faced when they struggled. But what about failure that comes after a long and illustrious career? I am not talking about you tripping on some silly mistake or bad judgment along the way, getting up, dusting yourself off and moving on. I am talking about the almighty fall from the top of the cliff right into an endless pit. You can’t even dust yourself off, because you haven’t stopped falling yet. It’s a constant, agonising, torturous fall. And the fact that I am standing in front of you today and not in a heap is proof that I survived it and lived to tell my story. I would be lying if I told you the thought of ending my life didn’t cross my mind during some moments of weakness, but my religious beliefs and the mere thought of never seeing the family I love again held me back from the parapet of despair.

place. When you are on top, sitting on that seat of power, you are king. But Heaven help you when you lose that throne and are plunged into exile. Whatever I tell you is from my best friend failure. Failure sat by my side when I tried to reach out to all my industry friends for a job. For every email that rejected me, failure told me never to give up. It held my hand and kept telling me, “It ain’t over until it’s over.” And I would look it in the eye and say “I have won 60 international awards, I was ranked second in the world in 2012, I was a legend. How can they do this to me?” Failure looked at me with tearful eyes and I realised my folly. I was still clinging on to the success that had left me. Still holding on to memories of it. Letting go wasn’t easy, trust me. It’s human nature; we all live off our past achievements. But the keyword here is ‘past’. I had to break free from it. I had one choice: to perish or persist. And to persist with life, I had to kill myself. Relax! I am not going suicidal. I am talking about killing the man I once was. I had to rise from the ashes. It was either be repudiated or be reborn. I started working on my rebirth. I knew that while emotionally I was a total disaster, professionally (and creatively) I had evolved. I

TO FAILURE, MY BEST FRIEND Advertising creative (and now chair designer) Shehzad Yunus says it was only when he learned to embrace failure that he could rediscover himself Let me help you reimagine success and failure metaphorically. Success is all those amazing friends who show up at your party, cheering you on, basking in your glory, eating your food, dancing with reckless abandon. Failure, on the other hand, is the friend that stays back and helps you clean up; it tells you stuff your ‘amazing friends’ would never have told you. But because you are high as a kite (success can be so intoxicating), failure’s words of wisdom seem bitter. Let me shake you up a little from your slumber. Failure is your closest friend. Success only told you to take, it only gave you a fake sense of supremacy. But failure actually wipes your tears, sits you down and gently tells you where you have gone wrong. And it stays with you until you are out of the woods. Failure never minces words. You could turn a deaf ear to it and wallow in self-pity. Bitch and moan about how the world brought you down. And while you are blaming others for your downfall, ask yourself this really important question: “Did you ever give credit to the world for your rise, Mr. Selfmade Man?” No? Then you have no right to whine about the world being behind your failure. Simply put, it’s now entirely in your hands. And I am no saint, folks. I had my moments of pointing fingers at the world. I will say this with absolute certainty, that the world, my advertising world, is one ruthless

was bursting with path-breaking ideas. I was more enlightened now than I ever was in my heyday. Once the new me was conceived, the gestation period wasn’t too long. Seven years with failure had made me patient. Surely I could wait for a few months. The period of unlearning was amazing. I stepped out of my comfort zone and tread a different path. It felt odd in the beginning to start all over again at 50. What exactly did I choose to do? When all you do is sit and wait for opportunity to knock on your door, you’d better make the best chair to sit on. And that’s exactly what I did. I followed my new calling: chair design. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks needs to get bitten by a rabid dog. I taught myself how to use SketchUp Pro to create unique, one-of-a-kind furniture, and Keyshot to render photorealistic images of my creations. It gave me immense pleasure. I felt alive again. I felt like a new person. I worked night and day honing my skills. I was always notorious for my ability to come up with shockingly simple and original ideas, so it was a very easy and natural progression. The principles of creativity were the same. I went on to create furniture that was unique, simple and highly conceptual. I wanted the lines between art and furniture to blur. I set out to create furniture that was original, unique and thoughtprovoking. It was a modest start. And the most amazing thing about it was not having to carry the baggage from the past. I was new. I was fresh. I was unsure. And the anticipation of being on a new journey made me feel young again. The remarkable thing about this new journey was the absolute absence of the fear of failure. Why would I be afraid of my best friend? In fact, when failure proudly looked at the body of new work I had done and silently started packing its bags, I yelled at it, “Where do you think you are going?” “You don’t need me anymore. Success awaits you at the end of this path,” it said. “I have the perfect place for you my friend. Deep inside my heart. Where I can listen to you and continue to learn from you,” I implored. So, you see, it’s not hard. I may not find success again. But the only thing that will keep me going is... my friend failure. I promise, I won’t sit still. Not even on the chairs I make.

June 28, 2020

know a wolf. He is living in the woods and has been for more than 17 years, but I know full well he is going to come back to terrorise me at some point. He will make me feel vulnerable and helpless, he will scare the life out of me. When he gets close, I will go into hiding in a deep dark place where he can’t see me; it’s the only way I can protect myself from this horrible cruel monster. Today as we come out of Covid-19, there are going to be a lot more wolves in the woods. The main psychological impact to date has been the elevated rates of stress or anxiety. But as new measures and impacts are introduced – especially quarantine and its effects on many people’s usual activities, routines or livelihoods – levels of loneliness, depression, harmful addictions, self-harm or suicidal behaviour are also expected to rise. I was asked to write this article on depression and the links to Covid-19, but in particular the effect on the creative industry. Make no mistake, this article is without doubt the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am opening up my vulnerabilities and weaknesses that put me at risk of the wolf coming back and doing some serious damage. I wonder: what if my clients perceive me differently, what if my colleagues who read this see me as weak when I need to be strong? But I need to speak out. Fellow agency people take note. Our sector has a big issue. People who work in the creative industry are three times more likely to experience issues with mental health and wellbeing than the general population. Last year, Ulster University researchers interviewed 574 people and found 36 per cent had been diagnosed with anxiety, 32 per cent with depression and 60 per cent had, at some point, considered suicidal thoughts. Peter McBride, of charity Inspire, which commissioned the research, told the BBC that people who are creative are likely to be more in touch with their feelings. “That can mean they sometimes experience things differently or more deeply than other people; that’s part of their craft,” he said. There’s no denying that agency life can be stressful. Working tireless creative hours to get to the final stages of a pitch, to be told you lost it because your creative didn’t hit the mark or your strategy was too advanced is devastating. And what do we do? Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and then throw everything we have into trying to win another one, only for it to happen again two weeks later. It’s mental torture at its highest and we have no real coping strategies. I had a mental breakdown in early 2003, and I suffer from severe bouts of depression from time to time. Worst of all, I don’t know why. If we meet you would never know; I am told I have great energy, I always have a half-full rather than half-empty attitude to life. I have a relatively successful career, with two beautiful children and a wife I

THE WOLF ON MY BACK I am sure you all know the fairy tale about the big bad wolf? Well with my story there will never ever be a happy ending. By MullenLowe regional MD Matt Butterworth

By MATT BUTTERWORTH, regional managing director, MullenLowe MENA

‘‘THE TRUTH IS I’M AFRAID BECAUSE OF THE STIGMA, BECAUSE OF THE TABOO.”

adore. I have a job I love. I did travel the world (before Covid). I am a person who should never be depressed; there are far more people in the world that have a reason to be sad, anxious and vulnerable, especially at a time of global crisis. And yet, despite all of this, without warning I can feel like the loneliest person on the planet. It is a horrible crushing black hole of pain that is never-ending. I am also a proud man. I believe it’s important my children and colleagues see me as a role model and a strong support, so being weak and vulnerable is not an option. I have learned over the years to understand that the wolf will be with me for the rest of my life and there is nothing I can really do about it. For others it may be very different and they will have coping strategies. What’s right for one person is very different for someone else. Today I’m quite good at being open with people about mental health, although I am still cautious on the information I give away. When I am entering my dark phase, I am conscious of it and often will try and deflect it by pretending the wolf isn’t coming. And sometimes that will trigger me at the right moment to say and do the right thing. My wife has been the rock that never judges me. She listens and encourages me to be open. All I can say to every person in this industry is: it’s always benefitted me to be open. I can’t in all honesty say it will benefit everyone. The truth is I’m afraid because of the stigma, because of the taboo, because of the discrimination that does sometimes exist. It could be worse for some people. If all of us could somehow make the leap together to be

more open, then the ill and the non-ill alike would be better off. So I plead with you, if you can’t cope, even if you’re struggling or feeling overwhelmed, reach out and talk. There are some wonderful organisations and professionals you can talk to, and one thing I can promise you is you are never alone. I am proud of that fact that, working for MCN, the group has come into its own, especially with mental wellbeing. They have provided weekly webinars for all employees about how to cope with anxieties and managing situations when you emotionally struggle – from the emotional wellbeing of homeschooling to the basics such as eating well and staying fit. With everything that is happening in the world, our mental wellbeing is being tested to the limit. We are part of a creative industry that also is more susceptible to mental illness. Now is the time more than ever before to reach out to our colleagues, friends and family and recognise the changes we see in their behaviour, the mood swings, the subdued energy, the anger. And, just maybe, realise that they aren’t being difficult or a pain. They could be suffering and in need of a little bit of help. I have come to terms with the fact that I will always have my illness. I have to accept it is a part of life, like having a vitamin deficiency. The wolf will always be there, I just have to learn to keep him at bay, If the wolf has come to pay you a visit during these horrible times, just remember, there are always people to talk to and give support. You’re not alone.

PARTNER CONTENT

June 28, 2020

Relevant, rooted and connected

Pepsi’s Virtual Suhours bring people together even when they are apart

ocial distancing and Ramadan are two things that could not seem further from one another. The Holy Month is a time of coming together, spending time with family and friends and reinforcing the sense of community that is central to the Islamic world. But during a pandemic it is our duty to that same community to stay as isolated as possible. This is why Pepsi stepped in to remind us that social distancing does not have to mean social isolation. The popular soft drinks brand found a way to tell its fans that there are still non-commercial ways to catch up and stay connected virtually. Pepsi teamed up with Tareq Al Harbi, one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential content creators, to host a Virtual Suhour on Instagram Live once a week. Tareq was joined online each week by another popular influencer nominated by his followers, and the two talked, joked and played games with their audience and each other through live chat. The Virtual Suhours were a great way to create an interactive and culturally relevant experience for the influencers’ followers, and to give them back some of what they were missing this Ramadan. It was an example of how a global player managed to balance current events with tradition and the latest technology to remain relevant, rooted and connected. “I have enjoyed my time with Pepsi during the live suhour sessions during the Holy Month of Ramadan,” said Al Harbi. “Together we laughed and enjoyed our suhour with the diversity of guests that were chosen for the sessions. Some were specialised in comedy, some in cooking, and we were able to reach a bigger and more diverse audience. Thank you, Pepsi.” Pepsi’s main objective with the initiative was to drive deeper-level consumer engagement with its

target audience – millennials and Generation Z, particularly those aged 19 to 29 – during a completely different Ramadan to the one we once knew, when physical suhours and gatherings were not possible. Instagram Live offered immediacy and intimacy, but choosing to create the majority of the content of the campaign through live sessions meant none of the content was edited, pre-planned or posed. It is a very new way of creating content that depends on candid performance, genuine surroundings and unfiltered actions. It takes a lot of courage and agility to base the bulk of the campaign on unfiltered, unmasked content. Luckily, Facebook (Instagram’s parent company) recorded 100 per cent positive sentiment on all the live session and very positive engagement rates. The collaboration offered consumers engaging content through the content creators to entertain and engage them at a challenging time. Consumers accepted that offering and showed Pepsi the risks of producing live content were worth it. The campaign saw a 6.4-point lift in ad recall and a 1.5-point lift in purchase intent, which is 150 per cent higher than the industry benchmark. The Virtual Suhours gathered an audience of more than 21 million, and generated 1.7 million story views. The total engagement rate ran at an impressive 5.32 per cent. Having a seamless relationship between Pepsi, Facebook, the creative agency, the influencer management agency and the content creators themselves was vital to the success of a live campaign with many moving parts, all functioning remotely. It was phenomenally orchestrated, says Facebook, and everybody rose to their roles and responsibilities seamlessly at a time when operating procedures were far from normal.

June 28, 2020

Schatzi Gheita, PepsiCo Senior Marketing Manager Content, Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia “At PepsiCo, we’ve allowed the current situation to further strengthen our agility muscle. We were courageous and agile to change our pre-planned Ramadan campaign to lead with a consumer-centric, mobile-first Ramadan platform, Pepsi Virtual Suhour. We listened to consumers and understood they would not be able to gather for their usual Ramadan suhours, so we worked with the region’s top content creators to bring them that sense of gathering and fun virtually.”

Rami Elkerdani, Creative Strategist MEA, Facebook “In times of crisis, those who adapt and pivot are the ones that change the game. When it comes from a brand like PepsiCo, you can only assume that this is the start of a whole new chapter in mobile advertising.”

Austyn Allison, Editor, Campaign Middle East “The thing that leaps out from this campaign for me is the way Pepsi managed to balance old, new and current in the form of Ramadan traditions, adapted through the possibilities for digital connections using Instagram Live, to cope with the reality of living through lockdown. This was a Ramadan unlike any other, and Pepsi didn’t just adapt to it; they owned it.”

THE CREATORS

THE HOST

Tarek Al Harbi (@6ar8o; 8.6 million Instagram followers)

THE GUEST

Darin Al Bayed (@darin00013; 4.4 million followers)

Hisham Baeshen (@misho_baeshen; 2.6 million followers)

Rayan Al Ahmari (@r.mjrm; 5.5 million followers)

CREATIVE CREDITS Agency: Impact BBDO Beirut Account Director: Ramzi Helou Creative Director: Angelo El Chami Pepsi song producer: Anghami Originals

June 28, 2020

HOME AND AWAY

Leap’s Kareem Farid says it is important to keep your mental health in check, whether you are working remotely or in the office

hange is constant, and the way we work has been continuously changing over the past few years – but the emergence of Covid-19 has led to a complete shift in the way we operate. There are looming uncertainties and new challenges for many of us. With everyone working from home, it is easy for employees to feel ignored and underappreciated. Now more than ever, we need to create an environment that breeds creativity, responsibility, innovation and engagement. When your team feels that they are growing, your results will grow with them. As part of our efforts to promote mental health in the workplace, we have partnered with Dr Karine Bekhazi, clinical psychologist and co-founder of Novomed Mental Health. She has identified isolation and burnouts as the two of the leading causes for concern as employees continue to work from home. Remote work is a common trend in many industries today, especially tech and business services; many are already familiar with how the loneliness of working remotely can impact their mental health. For those who are accustomed to conventional office life and a steady rate of social interactions at the office, the shift to remote work as a result of social distancing procedure during the Covid19- pandemic

has been somewhat challenging. It may result in a relatively mild deterioration of mental health. To maintain a healthy workplace, whether in the office or remotely, we need to ensure we are paying enough attention to our mental health. It is easy to ignore the triggers and focus solely on getting a task done, but we need leadership to create open lines of communication so employees can reach out when they need support. We need to create a positive work environment to boost morale when times are tough. Toxic work environments can add a lot of pressure on our mental wellbeing too. According to a survey by Mental Health America, 63 per cent of employees experienced isolation because of a hostile work environment, with the same 63 per cent stating that work stress negatively affected their mental and physical health. Identifying a toxic work environment can be tricky. Still, these are some reliable indicators such as employee burnout, fatigue, illness due to high levels of stress, a high turnover rate in the organisation, not having clear directions on your job role and lack of feedback or recognition. It is crucial to prioritise your physical and mental wellbeing, but a lot of people do not have the privilege of leaving a job until they land a new role. In such cases, it is

essential to develop a system to help you handle the dysfunction. A few things you can do are engaging in activities that make you happy after work. Go to the gym, cook your favourite meal or learn a new skill. The key is to make sure you are living a fulfilling life outside of work to combat stress. Organisations must prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of their employees and make the workplace a safe space as employees spend a large part of their day in the office. A healthier work environment

‘‘IT IS EASY TO IGNORE THE TRIGGERS AND FOCUS ON GETTING A TASK DONE, BUT WE NEED LEADERSHIP TO CREATE OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION.” improves overall productivity while keeping employees motivated to stay in work, boost creativity, recover from sickness quicker and remain at less risk of severe long-term illness. Our workplaces are our second home, but when you find yourself struggling, trying to motivate yourself just enough to get through each day, it isn’t worth it.

By Kareem Farid, managing director, Leap Comms

June 28, 2020

WHY MENTAL HEALTH IS THE CORNERSTONE OF PHYSICAL HEALTH Healology’s Hanan Selim looks at the link between the wellness of our minds and our bodies, and suggests some practical ways to keep on top of negative feelings

‘‘WE ARE GETTING AWAY FROM OUR REGULAR HABITS AND ROUTINES, WHICH CAN FURTHER CAUSE US TO NOT FEEL WELL.”

ake no mistake about it, looking after our mental health has never been more important. At a time when the industry is working from home, juggling briefs, maintaining client relationships and having worries about job security, it’s easy to understand why many people may be feeling stressed out and anxious. In the latest episode of comms industry podcast, The Brief, run by the Middle East PR Association (MEPRA) and powered by broadcast specialists Markettiers, I had the opportunity to delve into the importance of focusing on mental wellness during this time, whether you’re an employer running an agency, a big corporate player or part of a comms team itself. Prioritising the health of the team has never been more important. How our physical health links to mental health When you think about it, our physical health is often attributed to our mental health and we need to start by addressing the root cause of our problem, which often starts in our minds; I call this the mind-brain organ connection. But whilst talking about mental health is very on-trend globally, there is still a lot of stigma attached talking about this – especially in our region – that we need to overcome. At the moment we are seeing a lot of fear, anxiety and even depression coming out as a result of Covid-19. This is understandable. Of course, there is not only the mental isolation, which is self-taught, but now we have on top of that the physical isolation that compounds it. We are getting away from our regular habits and our regular routines, which can further cause us to not feel well. We see this in the number of people who are reporting sleeping problems at the moment – there’s a lot of stress and anxiety in the air and this is being manifested through our sleep (or lack of it). I call these problems chronic biodisruptors – there are certain things that are compounding your environment, whether it’s the physical or the mental isolation or even the disconnection. As humans we are programmed to be connected – we are social creatures, we have emotional drivers. One of the major emotional drivers is love and connection, and that being taken away really makes us feel very vulnerable to these feelings of anxiety and depression. Tips and tricks But the good news is that we can use many things to our advantage during this time to still feel

backwards; this trains your brain to keep calm. What’s more, if you have any negative thoughts or self talk, just the physicality of moving around can help – even if it’s just to get up from your desk and go to get a glass of water. It forces you to look at something differently, and exercise does wonders in terms of releasing endorphins and increasing our serotonin levels.

connected. For those people who are not in the mood to communicate verbally there is a great tool people can use that I call ‘how to empty the cup’. It is a bit different to the gratitude journal, where you write down what you’re grateful for; this is actually a journal that you keep to write down your feelings and what’s upsetting you and then you rip out the page of paper and throw it away. So the physical act of ripping the page will actually have the same residual effect on the inside. It’s like tearing up those feelings and not letting them linger. I also recommend brain training, which is the simple act of counting down from 100 to 1. It’s a 30-day exercise, so in the morning before you reach for your caffeine, you can count from 100 to 1 backwards, and that relaxes the brain and keeps it focused. Because the scientific truth is that your mind cannot be happy and sad at the same time. It can’t be excited and anxious at the same time, so this simple exercise keeps your brain on the one path of being calm and positive. For the first 10 days you count from 100 to 1 backwards, then the next 10 days you count from 50 to 1 backwards, and finally for the last 10 days you count from 10 to 1

Managing stress in the workplace When it comes to managing this in the remote workplace, it’s something that comms businesses should consider delivering as a wellness programme during this time. With people being the heart and soul of the business, sometimes you never really know how colleagues are feeling. Many people may put on a ‘poker face’ of ‘yes I’m doing good’, when in reality they are alone and feeling negative. So it’s very important that people understand the root cause and what the trigger is. Having a consultant deliver a group session to provide some tips and tools could just help manage this. At the moment, many of us are on a rollercoaster journey, and with the mental health charity Mind saying that one in six people will suffer from mental health issues during their lives, it’s never been more important to take care of ourselves. There are a number of different free resources that people can access, and by knowing that there are so many support systems on offer, by coming together in this age of disconnectivity, we can truly start to become more connected.

By Dr Hanan Selim, health and wellness expert, CEO and founder of Healology

June 28, 2020

A VIEW FROM

Ramsey Naja A CRISIS IS NOT A MEDIA CHANNEL

ne thing about large-scale crises is that they tend to sharpen people’s built-in cynicism into the kind of instrument prized by meticulous Japanese chefs. And nothing, absolutely nothing, draws that instrument out of its sheath quicker than the whiff of commercial vested interest. Here you are, confined for an eternity with a posse of stir-crazy children, turning your spare bedroom into the equivalent of a small neighbourhood

most brands today stand for a blank space to be filled with whatever is the cause du jour. Wallmart with a fixation on toilet rolls, trying to work out the minutiae of mask-wearing etiquette while frantically drenching your underwear in disinfectant gel and, hello, here comes Brand X cheerfully inviting you to notice a tenuous connection between its corporate slogan and the need for social distancing. I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of behaviour I find to be not so much in bad taste as simply wrong. You see, it is one thing to spot an opportunity and quite another to force it down one’s throat with the vicious

A AVIEW VIEWFROM FROM

Claire Beale

Ramsey Naja was CCO at JWT MEA @geminisnake

grace of a paté de fois gras producer. At a time when people are in desperate need of tangible reassurance, the last thing they want is a salesman disguised as a shrink, a headmaster or, worse, a goody two shoes. And what they want even less are brands who, for lack of built-in, long-term purpose, jump on any passing bandwagon that their armies of trend spotters detect (and jump off it the moment it drops down the Twitter rankings) without so much as a meaningful gesture beyond, well, words. This, in fact, is what years of neglecting the ABCs of brand management has done: most brands today stand for a blank space to be filled with whatever is the cause du jour, for which their communications becomes an excitable spokesperson as long as the audience’s attention span is focused on it. A global crisis, a pandemic or any cross-cultural unpleasantness is not seen by such people as a call for action: it is treated as media. And this is the heart of the matter. Because unless brands have earned the right to espouse a cause through years of relevant positioning, their right to speak about it can only be obtained through actual, tangible action, with hard currency and profit sacrifice to back it up. Otherwise, they will be no better than perverts who stand for office on a platform of family values. And the moment they are seen as such, it is not surprising to see the very audience they seek cutting them to shreds.

Motivate Publishing Group Head Office: 34th Floor, Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 427 3000, Email: motivate@motivate.ae Dubai Media City: Motivate Publishing FZ LLC, Office 508, 5th Floor, Building 8, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845 Abu Dhabi: Motivate Advertising, Marketing & Publishing, PO Box 43072, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Tel: +971 2 677 2005, Fax: +971 2 677 0124, Email: motivate-adh@motivate.ae London: Motivate Publishing Ltd, Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER. motivateuk@motivate.ae www.motivatemedia.com EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing Partner and Group Editor Ian Fairservice Editor Austyn Allison DESIGN Senior Art Director Olga Petroff Art Directors Clarkwin Cruz Junior Designer Thokchom Remy ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Tel: +971 4 427 3000 Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Milne Group Sales Manager Nadeem Ahmed Quraishi (+971 50 6453365) Group Marketing Manager Anusha Azees PRODUCTION General Manager S. Sunil Kumar Assistant Production Manager Binu Purandaran HAYMARKET MEDIA GROUP Chairman Kevin Costello Managing Director Jane Macken

The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. Campaign Middle East includes material reproduced from the UK Edition (and other editions) of Campaign, which is the copyright of Haymarket. Campaign is a trademark of Haymarket and is used under licence. The views and opinions expressed within this magazine are not necessarily those of Haymarket Magazines Limited or those of its contributors.

There is no disconnect between equality and success This must be a tipping point. Many of us have spent time listening, learning, thinking. Now everyone in the ad business needs to work together to make this industry actively anti-racist, fairer, more equal, more diverse, more inclusive. Some have more power than others right now to push ahead, yet we can see from IPA census data that this isn’t happening. And early evidence suggests that furloughing Claire Beale is global and job losses editor-in-chief are exacerbating at Campaign inequality. Active anti-racism is an urgent necessity. But when progress is so slow, we need to make it a businesscritical issue. So how about marketers decide they are only prepared to work with agencies that can demonstrate an ongoing commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity. How about marketers make it a condition of doing business with an agency. How about they make it business-critical for agencies to sort this out. Some marketers already do this; how about it becomes the norm, written into every RFI, every contract. Regularly monitored. I’d like to think agencies would do the same: only put their talent to work with marketers who can also demonstrate the same commitment. Does that sound naïve? Perhaps. But how powerful it would be if a great agency walked away from a pitch because the brand owner wasn’t truly committed, throughout its organisation and supply chain, to active anti-racism. Perhaps all this sounds fanciful in the face of harsh economic realities. But the case has already and frequently been made that – besides (even perhaps because of) being more interesting, rewarding and fun to work in – diverse, inclusive teams deliver better business results. There is no disconnect between equality and success; they are united.

June 28, 2020

Listening in the darkness

he mosque near my apartment issues a call to prayer at 4am. It reminds locked-down Muslims that even though they cannot attend, they are not alone. While the early azan may come at the start of the day for some, or the middle of the night for many, I am often still awake. Under quarantine, sleep and I have been like two magnets. During the day, the attraction can be overpowering, but at night the poles are reversed. The more I chase slumber, the more it pushes away. To occupy and distract my mind, I listen to the BBC World Service radio station, which broadcasts news and current affairs programmes from London. It is neither mindless nor overly stimulating. Like a mother humming to a baby, it provides just the right level of background noise and audible reassurance to insomniacs like me. The World Service fulfils that role on a grand scale. It provides the same assurances for the 40 or so scientists who man Britain’s Antarctic research stations. Every year in June those researchers celebrate the Midwinter solstice. As well as marking the shortest day of the year and the start of a return to light, Midwinter marks the halfway point of polar researchers’ 18-month postings. The scientists cook a meal, open presents and watch John Carpenter’s The Thing (honestly). They also listen to the World Service, which transmits a half-hour programme over shortwave just for them. The Midwinter broadcast is both banal and wonderful. There are a few song requests, a couple of celebrities, a poem, and recorded messages from family and friends. “We miss you…” “Hope you got the parcel…” “We’re proud of you…” “Bring me back a penguin…” “I love you…” This year Sir David Attenborough read out a message to one young scientist from his girlfriend: she loves him, she misses him, she’s proud of him and, yes, she will marry him.

On June 21, the BBC put out its Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast 2020 for everyone to hear, not just those on the only continent unreached by Covid-19. It did this because people everywhere are experiencing loneliness, isolation and darkness in their own way. I listened lying awake at night. This issue of Campaign has two themes: it looks at all things audio – from podcasts to streaming to voice assistants – and contains our annual Editor UAE radio guide; it also has a series of articles addressing mental health. austyn.allison@motivate.ae I’d like to extend a special thanks to @maustyn Shehzad Yunus and Matt Butterworth. On pages 24 and 25, they have opened up about their struggles with failure and depression. Those two features are deeply personal and must have been tough to write. They struck a chord with me, and I suspect many other readers will empathise too. For those of you who are lucky enough not to relate directly to the darker aspects of Shehzad’s and Matt’s stories, they are a reminder of the personal struggles our friends, family and colleagues may be tackling. As we all deal with our own darkness, we should remember to reach out to others, to remind them we are thinking about them. Now is a time to both speak up and be heard. Despite the darkness, light will return. Until then, it will do us all good to open our ears to one another and listen.

AUSTYN ALLISON

The answer is brand, now what’s the question? I

A VIEW FROM

DAVE TROTT

Dave Trott is the author of Creative Mischief, Predatory Thinking and One Plus One Equals Three

n the ancient Greek myth, Procrustes was a robber and murderer. He would invite weary travellers to stay the night in his house and use his bed. While they slept, he would tie them up and then make them fit the bed exactly.If they were too tall, he would amputate their legs; if they were too short, he would stretch them on the rack. Either way they eventually died, then he took their money and possessions. This went on for many years until, eventually, Theseus captured Procrustes. He forced him to submit to the same treatment and of course it killed him. Over the centuries the term “Bed of Procrustes” became shorthand for forcing anything, usually ideas or data, into a pre-formed conclusion. Thinking would be stretched or shortened until it fitted the required answer. The start point for the investigation wasn’t the information gathered, and then working to discover a conclusion. The start point was the required conclusion, then working backwards to make all the information fit – anything that didn’t fit being altered or discarded. The modern equivalent is the

saying: “The answer is X, now what’s the question?” In the case of advertising, it would be: “The answer is ‘brand’, now what’s the question?” Brand is our Bed of Procrustes, it is so ingrained as an answer we can’t even see it. And yet several decades ago, brand didn’t exist as an answer. It was obvious that most of the reasons people bought things were: price, size, range, availability, design, efficiency, durability. Right at the end of a long list was brand, it was only a small thing, but for marketing types it seemed to be the only part advertising could affect. As it was the one thing advertising could control, it was exaggerated in importance. An entire department was built around brand, called the brand planning department. And it was staffed by university graduates who couldn’t do advertising, but they could write long papers on brand planning. Which meant clients had to recruit graduates to decipher long papers on brand planning. And pretty soon university graduates and brand planning took over from advertising. The answer to every problem had to be cut or stretched until it fitted the solution “brand”. Which meant advertising was

reduced to an academic subject, like a thesis. The answer always had to be brand, there was no other possibility; it had to be made to fit. But is that always true? A couple of decades ago, the largest advertising spender in the UK was the Central Office of Information. It had massive accounts like road safety, and fire prevention. Brand wasn’t the answer to any of its requirements; behavioural change was. It didn’t matter if anyone found the brand “road safety” attractive, it only mattered whether they drove more safely and didn’t kill so many people. Another of the biggest spenders was the Health Education Council – it had accounts like anti-smoking. It didn’t matter whether anyone found the brand “anti-smoking” attractive, it only mattered whether they stopped smoking and fewer people died. But it seems we’re not interested in changing behaviour anymore; it doesn’t fit with the answer “brand”. So here’s another thought, another way of approaching advertising. Maybe there’s an alternative to cutting up problems to fit the bed called “brand”. Maybe we could have different sized beds to fit different problems. Just a thought.

June 28, 2020

McDonald’s… ‘This idea struck gold.’ (RLR)

Omantel… ‘I would have skipped this after 5 seconds.’ (CT)

Bose… ‘It is not easy to find relevant insights and turn them into interesting ideas, yet they did it in a nice way.’ (CT)

Mosafar… ‘The execution is smart, and the takeout message is sincere.’ (RLR)

Cadillac… ‘The automotive industry has no idea where to go.’ (CT)

June 28, 2020

Private View RODRIGO LEAL RODRIGUES

CRISTIANO TONNARELLI

ECD, Horizon FCB

ECD MENA, Merkle

MCDONALD’S: IFTAR SAND CLOCK (1) Circumventing the golden rule during Ramadan to not advertise food products is why this idea struck gold. The clever use of time as a medium to count down as well as announce the product makes the hourglass burgers, fries, and desserts featured just that much cooler. I’m lovin’ it. OMANTEL: RAMADAN (2) A Ramadan campaign with the usual suspects: a heartwarming narrative, catchy song, well-executed. Kudos to the brand for being Covid-19 sensitive, but it begs the question: Will it stand out from the usual clutter? BOSE: DEAR NEIGHBOUR (3) A sweetheart message with a unique perspective on social distancing. The right idea at the right time that sends the audience in one direction, but then quickly pulls them into another as the copy unveils a plot twist. The film’s sensitivity and vision worked together well in telling an inspiring story – all while using the product as a clever catalyst. Well done. AL MOSAFER: STORIES OF MECCA (4) Using real footage taken from real moments gives the film real merit. Offering people the chance to emotionally relive Mecca at a time when they can’t connect with it physically is both powerful and special. The execution is smart, and the takeout message is sincere. CADILLAC CT5: THE PLEASURE IS ALL YOURS (5) Well produced car demo film, delivering the proposition. That’s it.

MCDONALD’S: IFTAR SAND CLOCK (1) Nice idea, I love the design. Even if a sand clock to mark the end of fasting is not the freshest idea possible, it has been executed in a brilliant, fresher way. OMANTEL: RAMADAN (2) I would have skipped this after 5 seconds. I think it is lame. The lyrics of the song are nice (I asked an Arabic copywriter to translate it for me) but I can’t see anything fresh in it. The video is just showing what people are already doing. No creative twist, nothing to discover, nothing that couldn’t have been done in other parts of the world. BOSE: DEAR NEIGHBOUR (3) Creativity is nurtured by problems, and this moment is full of problems and new insights. It is not easy to find relevant insights and turn them into interesting ideas, yet they did it in a nice way. I like the footage – I know it wasn’t shot for this campaign – and the final twist. The promotion that Bose and the same agency did recently is much more powerful and relevant; this one is still a nice ad. AL MOSAFER: STORIES OF MECCA (4) The video created an emotional connection with people. But apart from that, it sounds a little bit vague. It shows closeness but no commitment, and it is not easy to get what the brand stands for, at least for me. It is a nice insight but the idea could go deeper and further. CADILLAC CT5: THE PLEASURE IS ALL YOURS (5) It seems the automotive industry in the region has no idea where to go. Most of them are applying old solutions to new problems. The world has changed. Nobody really knows how much, yet, but it has changed. Showing a nice shot of their product with no story and a weak concept will not make any difference. It brings the brand out of context and makes it invisible. Now people are cutting unnecessary expenditure, I hardly see any relevance in merely showing a product. It is not easy to do a great campaign for cars, but at least brands should start somewhere and share their vision. If they do not take risks now, when sales are dramatically low, then when?

McDonald’s

Title: Iftar Sand Clock Agency: Leo Burnett

Omantel

Title: Ramadan Agency: Leo Burnett Media: Zenith Production house: 35 Film

Bose

Title: Dear Neighbour Agency: Wunderman Thompson Dubai ECD: Pablo Maldonado Senior copywriter: Waleed Bachnak Senior art director: Saymon Souza Medeiros Production house: Asteroide Director: Thiago Prestes

Al Mosafar

Title: Stories of Mecca Agency: FP7 Riyadh Production company: Dejavu Executive producer: Manasavi Gosalia Director: Tahaab Rais DOP, cinematography, editor, grading and colourist: Ayas Hassan

Cadillac

Title: The pleasure is all yours Production house: Camouflage Productions Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Director/DOP: Alessandro Pavoni Executive producer: Dania Salha Quaglio Producer: Keshav Purushot Post-production producer: Khalid Jabaly Editor: Ameya Gupta Colourist: Dan Mitre (DMM) Online editor: Ghassan Abboud Music composition: Nnamdi Prince Elu

June 28, 2020

The Spin As small businesses struggle from the effects of Covid-19, help can come from all sorts of places. The Spin recently received an email from a US company called Stripchat (we don’t know how they got our email, we swear) that describes itself as “a leading free online adult entertainment and live camming platform”. It is offering complimentary marketing to businesses affected by Covid-19 through “free advertising on its site via branded t-shirts worn by popular cam models”. Or, presumably, not worn by the end of the show.

in itself has sparked a debate about corporate integrity and activism. US business title Fast Company had a take on the trend of changing social media logos to show solidarity with the cause. It’s just a shame their unaltered logo was already ahead of the curve.

A UAE paper recently reported Dubai officials saying we should be “untied” in fighting the problem of drugs. The Spin suspects that might have been a typo. Usually the authorities are so strait-laced. For the Grammar Police out there, here’s an example of why you should check your subjects and verbs match up. The Spin suspects it wasn’t the police rampaging and looting along the Königstraße. Although you never know. The corporate world has been addressing the Black Lives Matter movement in many ways, with varying degrees of sincerity, and this

CAMPAIGN DIARY

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